Zimbabwe pulled off a thrilling last-ball win against Afghanistan in the first T20I match of the bilateral series in Harare on Wednesday. Naveen-ul-Haq gave his best by taking three big wickets but came under scrutiny after leaking too many extra runs.
The star right-arm pacer started his spell by bowling a brilliant maiden first over and gave Afghanistan a strong start while defending 144 runs in the second innings at Harare Sports Club. He also gave Afghanistan an early breakthrough by removing opener Tadiwanashe Marumani in the third over as he leaked only 4 runs in his first two-over spell.
Zimbabwe struggled in the middle overs and required 57 runs in the last six overs to win the game. Captain Rashid Khan handed the 15th over to Naveen in the hope of killing the game way before the death overs but the experienced bowler stunned the crowd by bowling a 13-ball over and conceding 19 runs.
The 25-year-old pacer bowled six wide balls and one no ball but also claimed a valuable wicket of Sikandar Raza's. His over eventually cost Afghanistan a game as the required run rate came down below 8.
Naveen also bowled the penultimate over and dismissed Wesley Madhevere but conceded 10 runs in an over. Afghanistan registered their first-ever T20I defeat against Bangladesh in the last five overs.
"We wanted to put up a good total on the board. We were only 15-17 runs short, it was still a good total," Rashid Khan told broadcasters after the game. "Nabi and Karim played really well in the middle. We gave away so many wickets early on and in T20s, it is hard to come back. We could have bowled better than that (what we did)."
Zimbabwe Playing XI: Brian Bennett, Tadiwanashe Marumani (wk), Dion Myers, Wessly Madhevere, Sikandar Raza (c), Ryan Burl, Wellington Masakadza, Tashinga Musekiwa, Richard Ngarava, Blessing Muzarabani, Trevor Gwandu.
Afghanistan Playing XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Sediqullah Atal, Hazratullah Zazai, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Mohammad Ishaq, Rashid Khan (c), Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fareed Ahmad Malik.
