adminAFGHANISTAN continued to impress in their warm-up matches on their tour of Zimbabwe with a 22 run victory over the Zimbabwe Chairman XI in a 50 over cricket match played at Bulawayo Athletic Club in Bulawayo yesterday.
The win saw the Asians lead the three match practice matches 2-0 following their win in the first encounter staged at the same venue on Thursday.
Afghanistan , who had lost the toss and sent in to bat first were bowled out for 226 in 49 overs, the highest contribution with the bat coming from wicketkeeper Mohammad Shahzad who made 72 runs from 94 deliveries while Asghar Stanikzai was second best with 36 runs off 53 balls.
Right arm off spinner Tapiwa Mufudza took three wickets for 57 runs in the 10 overs he bowled while seamers Donald Tiripano and Tendai Chisoro took two wickets apiece. In their run chase, the Zimbabwe Chairman XI were blown away for 204 runs in 44.1 overs.
The locals had Chisoro and Tiripano to thank as a last wicket stand by the two bowlers made up for the disappointing show put up by the batsmen. Chisoro, in to bat at number 10 was the highest runs scorer for Zimbabwe with 53 with Tiripano second best on 44 as the two put on 109 runs for the last wicket.
The two teams meet in the final match of the practice matches series at BAC tomorrow before Afghanistan get into serious business with the first One Day International against Zimbabwe at Queens Sports Club on Friday.
derick.khumalo
Online Reporter