Chevrons keep series alive

Chevrons keep series alive with big win
The New Year brought in new fortunes for Zimbabwe’s bowlers, but not their batsman, as they snatched a 117-run win from Afghanistan in the third ODI in Sharjah to keep the five-match series alive.
Their medium-pacers struck from the very first over and allowed a biggest partnership of only 23 runs as Afghanistan were routed for 58 in their chase of 176.
Luke Jongwe took his maiden ODI five-for and Neville Madziva finished with 3 for 27 from six overs to dismiss Afghanistan in only 16.1 overs.
It barely looked like Zimbabwe would get anywhere close to victory when they were 49 for 7 after choosing to bat, but Hamilton Masakadza and Graeme Cremer staged a comeback for them, striking fifties and sharing a partnership of 104 runs to help the side move past 150.
With a more respectable total to defend, Zimbabwe’s bowlers dismantled the Afghanistan line-up, by having most of their frontline batsmen caught behind.
Unlike Zimbabwe, Afghanistan could not recover from their score of 47 for 7 and, except for Mohammad Shahzad, no other batsman reached double-figures.
Strangely, both teams were 0 for 2, at one stage, but Zimbabwe’s recovery was better.
Madziva and Jongwe didn’t allow the Afghanistan batsmen to breathe at all.
Madziva struck off consecutive deliveries in the first over to remove Noor Ali Zadran with a yorker and Mohammad Nabi with a wide delivery which he edged to the wicketkeeper.
The other opening bowler and left-arm spinner Tendai Chisoro, who came in for Wellington Masakadza, also chipped in with two big wickets to reduce Afghanistan to 39 for 4.
Shahzad, meanwhile, had done a bit of damage early on to keep Afghanistan alive by scoring 31 of their total of 39 by the sixth over.
He used brute force and targeted the leg side for most of his blows before failing in his attempt to clear mid-off and Elton Chigumbura dived forward for a good, low catch.
The rest of the damage was then inflicted by Jongwe, who stuck to an asking line and length outside off, extracted good bounce and produced frequent outside edges.
He moved the ball just a bit to make Hashmatullah Shahidi and Mirwais Ashraf edge the ball to Masakadza at wide slip, in the ninth over. In his next over he also had Samiullah Shenwari edge one behind with marginal seam movement to move the ball away and, with the score on 49 for 8, Afghanistan’s chase had virtually ended there.
Afghanistan now lead the series 2-1—Cricinfo