Najibullah Zadran raised a storm with his bat that sank Zimbabwe by 28 runs in the high-scoring second match of the tri-nation series at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium (SBNCS) in the capital’s Mirpur yesterday. Chasing a stiff target of 198, Zimbabwe lost some wickets early on, but the team continued playing in high spirits, giving a tough fight against top-ranked Afghanistan as they were 141 for six after 17 overs, compared to 149 for four of the Asian side at the same stage of their innings.

Having lost four wickets for 44, Tinotenda Mutombodzi and Ryan Burl brought them back on the track. But Rashid Khan, with his mysterious bowling variations befooled them as Mutombodzi got out for 20 and Burl was dismissed for 25. Regis Chakabva raised a

glimmer of hope to chase down the target when he hit 45 with Neville Madziva for the seventh-wicket stand, but Gulbadin Naib trapped him before posing any serious threat. He was caught out after scoring 11-ball 15 with two big shots over the boundary. Finally the Zimbabwe chase ended at 169 for seven.

Chahabva was at stumps on 42. He clattered three fours and two sixes in his unbeaten 22-ball knock. Kyle Jarvis cracked 15 off nine with two sixes.

Leg-spinner Rashid Khan and Fareed Malik grabbed a couple of wicket each for the winners. Karim Janat and Gulbadin Naib contributed to the victory with a wicket apiece.

Earlier Afghanistan compiled a gigantic 197-run total against Zimbabwe, largely thanks to Najibullah Zadran’s unbeaten cameo 30-ball 69.

Afghanistan made a breezy start through their openers-Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Hazratullah Zazai after being put into bat first on Mirpur surface. Zimbabwe put brakes on prowling Afghanistan for a while when they sent Gurbaz and Zazai back in two successive overs, as the team were on 60-2.

Najeeb Tarakai then attempted to pick up the pace with Asghar Afghan and stitched together 20 for the third-wicket before Sean Williams once again stemmed the run-flow by getting rid of Najeeb Tarakai, who holed out for 14.

Just 10 runs later, Afghan joined with Trakai in the dug-out when he was caught out by Ryan Burl off Ainsley Ndlovu after scoring the identical 14.

Then Najibullah Zadran came to the crease and started carnage over Zimbabwean bowlers with Mohammad Nabi on the other side. Zadran was ruthless and aggressive and the duo hit 10 maximums including seven on the trot. Overall Afghanistan batsmen clattered 15 sixes that eclipsed the West Indies’ previous record of 12 sixes at this venue. The Windies blasted the record against hosts Bangladesh in 2012.  

Zadran and Nabi added an invaluable 107 for the fifth-wicket stand that mustered a gargantuan total of 197 for Afgahnistan.

Mohammad Nabi, the last batsman to fall, turned to be the second wicket of Tendai Chatara, who earlier accounted for Hazratullah Zazai. Nabi made 18-ball 38 with the help of four sixes.

Najibullah clubbed half-a-dozen eye-catching shots over the boundary and five across the ropes in his unbeaten knock in his 69 off just 30. Sean Williams and Tendai Chatara evenly shared four wickets between them while Ainsley Ndlovu bagged one wicket for Zimbabwe.