Afghanistan edge Zimbabwe to win T20 series

HARARE: Afghanistan edged Zimbabwe with three balls to spare in their final Twenty20 international on Saturday to win the series 2-1 after scoring 128-7 in reply to Zimbabwe’s 127.

Mohamed Nabi’s unbeaten 24 got the visitors over the line to win the last of the three matches at the Harare Sports Club.

Zimbabwe were put into bat after Afghanistan won the toss and had another poor outing with the bat, having been skittled out for 103 in the second game of the three-match series on Friday.

Zimbabwe were looking good for a larger total on Saturday when they got to 78-3 in the 11th over but Rashid Khan took 4-27 off his four overs to help skittle them out for 127 with a ball to go.

Azmatullah Omarzai top scored for Afghanistan with 34 in 37 balls.

The two countries will now embark on a three-match One Day International series, also in Harare, followed by two tests in Bulawayo.

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In the second T20I at the Harare Sports Club on Friday, Darwish Rasooli scored a career best 58 from 42 balls as Afghanistan eased to a 50-run victory over hosts Zimbabwe, levelling the three-match series at 1-1.

Afghanistan elected to bat first and posted 153 for six in their 20 overs, with Rasooli leading the way with his fluent half-century. He put on an important 52 from 33 balls for the sixth wicket with Gulbadin Naib, who was unbeaten on 26 from 21 balls.

Zimbabwe were always struggling in their reply and slipped to 5-57 in the 11th over, before captain Sikandar Raza added some respectability to the score with 35 from 30 balls. They were bowled out for 103 in 17.4 overs.