CHEVS IN HEAVY DEFEAT

THE Chevrons, crippled by a poor batting effort which saw them slumping to 30-5, crashed to a 53-run defeat at the hands of Afghanistan in the first T20I at Harare Sports Club yesterday.

The hosts came into the match bubbling with confidence after destroying their opponents, inside three days, by an innings in the only Test at the same venue.

But, this was a different Afghanistan, boosted by the return of Rashid Khan and, after powering to 180-6, they destroyed the Chevrons reply.

The opening pair of Ibrahim Zadran (52) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (39) built a firm base for the visitors when they batted first.

Captain Sikanda Raza (3-20) and Blessing Muzarabani (2-41) were the best bowlers.

In reply, Zimbabwe never got going and when they lost half of their wickets, with just 30 on the board, the game had long been lost.

Tadiwanashe Marumani went for a duck and he was not alone.

Brendan Taylor and Ryan Burl were also dismissed for a duck while Raza scored one run.

Tinotenda Maposa top-scored for Zimbabwe with 30 runs while Brian Bennett and Brad Evans each scored 24 runs.

In the end, Zimbabwe were 127 all out in reply.

“Afghan boys played well in the powerplay. Had the score been 165, it could have been different. I don’t think there was enough pace,” said Raza.

“That was certainly chaseable. We were off the mark today. We won’t be precise enough. We were a little unlucky.

“If we can be precise at the top, we can score more runs. We will have a good game on Friday. Had we got wickets in hand by the 15th over, it would have been a different game.

“The bottom order had a go and it is good in a way. But we don’t want to see that often.”

Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan said:

“Pretty happy. We lost five T20s coming into this. Two during the Asia Cup and then against Bangladesh. We needed this. The openers gave us the base. Brilliant team effort.

“This is almost the same team which made it to the semi-finals of the 2024 T20 WC. It is the same team which lost these games.

“Important to start well. We started well with the bat and the ball. We have strong power-hitters in the middle-order. Hopefully, we can continue. We have lot of expectations from Ibrahim and Gurbaz.” —Sports Reporter/Cricbuzz