Taylor powers Zimbabwe to a massive win
Zimbabwe wicketkeeper Brendan Taylor smashed his 9th ODI ton and helped Zimbabwe register an against Afghanistan at Sharjah.
It is noted that the two teams are currently involved in a 5 match ODI series at Sharjah, UAE.
Zimbabwe – An innings they wanted
Opting to bat first, Zimbabwe made sure they ticked all their boxes which they weren”t able to do in the earlier matches. Mazakadza played a responsible knock by scoring 48 runs before sacrificing his wicket. Brendan Taylor who looked so comfortable against the Afghan bowling line-up played a scintillating inning by hitting across all the corners of the ground. He scored 125 runs at an S/R of 103. The knock included 5 boundaries and 8 huge sixes.
Sikandar Raza, the man behind the Srilankan massacre in the last tri-series hit a blistering 92 off 74 balls powering the total to 333 at the loss of five wickets.
None of the Afghan bowlers looked threatening other than Rashid Khan who ended with a spell of 10-1-36-2.
Afghan batting collapse
Afghanistan chasing 334, never looked settled in their batting as they lost both the openers by the end of 4th over itself. The star of the last match, Rahmat scored a solid 41, but that wasn”t enough for the team in their long chase. Cremer and Chatara accounted for seven wickets and played a major role behind the batting collapse. Afghanistan was all out for 179 runs, thus making the series level at 1-1.
Match summary :
Zimbabwe: 333/5 Taylor 125, Rashid 2/36
Afghanistan: 179, Cremer 4/41
Game of numbers
It should be noted that in both the ODI “s played in the series the winning team won by a margin of 154 runs whereas the other team was bowled out for 179 runs.
In both the matches the No:3 batsmen scored a century from the winning side.
The next match will be played at the same venue on Feb 13.