Zimbabwe A succumb to 55-run loss against Afghanistan A
Zimbabwe A succumb to 55-run loss against Afghanistan A
A shocking display of batting by the Zimbabwe A top-order turned an expected victory after a fine performance with the ball into a defeat at the hands of Afghanistan A at Harare Sports Club today. The home side was only saved from complete disgrace by an astonishing innings from Ryan Burl, who scored 54 runs with six sixes, while the rest of the top nine batsmen scraped 26 runs between them. The weather was warm and sunny, in contrast to that of Friday’s match, but Zimbabwe A, on winning the toss this time, put Afghanistan A in to bat, apparently presuming, quite erroneously as it turned out, that the early-morning conditions on a greenish pitch would outweigh the predicted change in the weather later in the day.
In fact the Zimbabwe bowlers found very little help from the pitch, while the weather closed in immediately after lunch. Zimbabwe A brought in the very promising Under-19 wicketkeeper-batsman Ryan Murray to make his A team début and relieve the captain PJ Moor behind the stumps, while Brian Chari also played – the unsuccessful opening batsmen of the first match, Charles Kunje and Tendai Maruma, were omitted.
The Afghan opening pair put on 15 together against the bowling of Tendai Chatara and Neville Madziva, and then the left-handed Shahidullah (5) drove Madziva hard into the covers, where Tarisai Musakanda held a fine low catch. Imran Janat and Nasir Khan began to handle the bowling with increasing confidence, although Janat, on 17, was dropped at long-leg when he skied a pull off Chatara. The deterioration in the weather came sooner than expected, and 50 minutes after the start the sky was overcast and a drizzle began. Play continued, though, and Nathan Waller went for 15 in his first over, mostly to Janat, who slashed a six over third man off a short ball outside his off stump.
The weather improved and the batsmen flourished, as none of the bowlers were able to trouble them or even slow down their scoring. Waller finally produced a full-length ball that beat Janat and trapped him lbw for a good 49, scored off 58 balls, and Afghanistan A were 87 for two in the 21st over. Without addition Wellington Masakadza removed Khan for 28, also lbw, and the match had turned. Zimbabwe A should have taken another wicket immediately, as the new batsmen, Shafiqullah and Noor-ul-Haq, got themselves into a fearful mess over a quick single, but a bad misfield allowed them to regain their creases safely.
In the following over the batsmen nearly ran themselves out again, but the throw-in was not accurate enough; a few minutes later they came close to doing it again. At this point watching the batsmen run, or not run, between wickets was the most entertaining part of the match. The fun finally came to an end, not through the expected run-out — perhaps the Zimbabwean fielders were laughing too much to take advantage — but when Haq, who seemed to be the main culprit, chopped a ball from Waller on to his leg stump for five; 105 for four in the 27th over.
Carl Mumba produced a fine yorker to bowl Khaibar Omar for eight; 118 for five in the 31st over. Shafiqullah was clearly the danger man for the Zimbabweans now, and he was joined by Rahman Gul, who played with confidence. The pair put on 57 together before Gul (28) was caught at backward point off Mumba; 175 for six after 39 overs. Fazal Niazai was trapped lbw by Mumba without scoring, while Shafiqullah reached his fifty off 52 balls, only to be lbw himself to Mumba off the next delivery he faced.
Afghanistan A were now 188 for eight in the 43rd over, and the advantage definitely belonged to Zimbabwe A. The tail did not look threatening, although the last pair brought up the 200 in the 47th over. Zamir Khan was the last man out, run out for 13, and the eventual total was 208, in the 48th over. Murray did an impressive job behind the stumps, and several good judges have backed him for a place in the senior national team in the near future. Mumba, bowling better than he did on Friday, took five wickets for 54, while there were two wickets Waller and one each for Madziva and Masakadza.
With rain again threatening and the light none too good, Zimbabwe A opened their batting with Innocent Kaia and Chari. They quickly suffered a setback when, in the second over, Kaia became another lbw victim, to the left-arm spinner Akbar, for a single. With drizzle again falling, Chari and Musakanda looked most unconvincing, and it was no surprise when Chari went, like Kaia, lbw for a single, though the bowler this time was the seamer Niazai. At six for two, Zimbabwe A were already in serious trouble, which was to get worse as Musakanda padded up to Niazai and also found the umpire’s finger raised against him — the seventh lbw dismissal of 13 wickets to fall at this point.
Ryan Burl arrived at the crease and survived one ball, before the umpires decided to suspend play as the rain continued. It was never heavy, but the drizzle was prolonged – eventually it was decided that play should start again at 4.05pm, although in poor light. The new target set Zimbabwe by the Duckworth-Lewis system was 189 in 31 overs, assuming that the light held out, which did not look likely at that stage, with a light drizzle starting up again. However, when Moor (3) fished outside the off stump and edged to the keeper off Abdullah Adil with only a wide added to the total, it appeared that the number of overs would be irrelevant.
While Burl concentrated on defence to start with, Murray briefly looked capable of dealing with the bowling on its merits. He played a confident innings of 12 before he edged a ball from Shafiqullah and was caught low down at short third man, making the score now 27 for five. Waller quickly holed out at long-off for three, while Madziva (4) put on 14 in partnership with Burl before being caught and bowled off a leading edge.
Burl is generally an efficient scorer rather than a big hitter, but he decided to show his team-mates what should have been possible by swinging a ball from Akbar for six over midwicket, taking the total past 50, and in the next over he smashed Shafiqullah for three successive sixes, two over midwicket and one over long-on. Adil the paceman then returned, but Burl hit him for six over square leg as well.
Attempting another six, he was fortunate to be dropped near the boundary at cow corner. He slashed the final ball of the over for six over cover to reach a magnificent fifty off 43 balls – it was his sixth six off 12 balls. Finally, though, he drilled a low skimmer to deep midwicket and was caught for 55, scored off 46 balls with one four and six sixes. The score was now 93 for eight in the 23rd over; the partnership with Masakadza had put on 48 runs in just 4.4 overs.
Masakadza tried to take over Burl’s role and the team hundred came up in the next over. Mumba joined in by hitting a ball from Akbar for the biggest six of the day, over the top of the media centre, so a replacement had to be used. Masakadza made 22 before, attempting another big hit to leg, he was bowled off his body by Khan; 118 for nine in the 26th over.
The innings ended at 126 when Chatara swung across the line and was bowled without scoring; Mumba had shown good fight in his 17 not out, including two sixes — which was more than could be said for most of the specialist batsmen. The next match of the series takes place on Tuesday at the same venue, and the Zimbabwe A batsmen, having reduced their team to two-nil down in the five-match series, have some serious soul-searching to do.
Brief Scores:
Afghanistan A: 208 all out in 47.3 overs (Shafiqullah 50, Imran Janat 49; Carl Mumba 5 for 54, Nathan Waller 2 for 34) beat Zimbabwe A 126 in 27.5 overs (Ryan Burl 55, Wellington Masakadza 22; Fazal Niazai 3 for 20, Zamir Khan 2 for 14, Ziaurrahman Akbar 2 for 22, Shafiqullah 2 for 24) by 55 runs (D/L method)