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Following his side's defeat against Afghanistan in the third ODI match of the series, Zimbabwe skipper Craig Ervine said that they found it tough against the visitors.
AM Ghazanfar's five-wicket haul and Sediqullah Atal's half-century powered Afghanistan to clinch an eight-wicket victory over Zimbabwe in the third match of the series at the Harare Sports Club on Saturday. With the victory, Afghanistan clinched a 2-0 victory over Zimbabwe in the three-match ODI series. The first match of the series was called off without any result due to incessant rain. Speaking at the post-match presentation, Ervine said that the Zimbabwean youngsters have been exposed in the series against Afghanistan. He also praised the visitors and said that they displayed quality performance with both the bat and the ball. "Obviously, we've got to look forward to the test, but I think, you know, throughout this series, we did find it tough. A lot of the youngsters have been exposed to, I think some Quality bowling from the Afghanistan side, and a lot of credit to them. I thought, you know, they were, they were brilliant throughout with the bat, with the ball with the spin through the middle," Ervine was quoted by ESPNcricinfo as saying. He added that it was a tricky series for the hosts since they are trying to evolve. "(Batting collapse) Oh, look. I think It's it's always it's always tricky because you're constantly trying to evolve. You're constantly trying to get better and improve. Um and you go over certain plans and sometimes they don't work, I think that's part of sport. But I thought today, at least we showed a little bit more intent, a little bit more positivity. And well done to Sean Williams, obviously his innings today were outstanding," he added. Recapping the match, Afghanistan won the toss and opted to bowl first against Zimbabwe. Sean Williams (60 runs from 61 balls, 6 fours and 3 sixes) was the only player who shone in the first inning for Zimbabwe, scoring the highest run for the hosts. Apart from Williams, other Zimbabwe batters failed to stand still in front of the Afghan bowling attack. Ghazanfar led the Afghanistan bowling attack and restricted Zimbabwe to 127 with 19 overs remaining. Ghazanfar bagged five wickets in his 10-over spell and gifted 33 runs at an economy rate of 3.30. Rashid Khan also picked up three wickets in his eight-over spell. During the run chase, Sediqullah Atal (52 runs from 50 balls, 4 fours and 2 sixes) and Abdul Malik (29 runs from 66 balls, 4 fours) opened for the visitors and cemented an 84-run partnership. The Afghan openers made the job easier for the middle-order batters to chase the target. Later in the inning, Rahmat Shah (17* runs from 23 balls, 2 fours) and Hashmatullah Shahidi (20* runs from 22 balls, 3 fours) stayed unbeaten on the crease to add the winning runs on the board and helped his clinch an 8-wicket win over Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe displayed a sloppy performance with the ball, only Richard Ngarava and Trevor Gwandu managed to pick wickets in the second inning. (ANI)
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