CRICKET POLL

A five-wicket haul by 18-year-old spinner AM Ghazanfar triggered another batting collapse from Zimbabwe in the third and final ODI, and helped seal the series for Afghanistan 2-0 with an eight-wicket victory.

Put into bat on a fresh pitch, Zimbabwe were skittled out for 127 inside 31 overs, which Afghanistan chased with 23.1 overs to spare at the Harare Sports Club.

It was a diffident start from the hosts, who were coming off a 54 all-out in the last match. So it wasn't a surprise that Azmatullah Omarzai started proceedings from one of the ends with a maiden and that Zimbabwe's first boundary came in the fifth over when Ben Curran drove an overcooked delivery to the long-off fence.

Ghazanfar, who had three wickets in the last match, was brought on to bowl inside the first PowerPlay this time around and he took all of five balls to strike. Joylord Gumbie became the first of his five wickets on the day when he top-edged a sweep, having had difficulties reading the spinner. Before Ghazanfar could come back for his next over and pin Curran lbw in front, Omarzai had gotten the big wicket of Craig Ervine with an unplayable seed that did just enough to take the outside edge.

There was a semblance of recovery when Sikandar Raza and Sean Williams, who top-scored with run-a-ball 60, added 36 runs for the fourth wicket. All that came undone when Rashid Khan came into the attack and struck twice in his first two overs, his victims being Raza and the batter who replaced him at the crease, Brian Bennett. With the doors opened again, Ghazanfar went on a roll, picking two wickets in two balls en route to his second five-wicket haul in his 11th ODI, as Zimbabwe found themselves all at sea once again versus Afghanistan's spinners.

Richard Ngarava, playing his 50th ODI for Zimbabwe, was one of only four batters to reach double digits and the last man out as the hosts faced the daunting challenge of defending a sub-par total. While the pitch offered some assistance, it was far from enough to make the target defendable.

Afghanistan didn't come out all guns blazing, a sign that the pitch wasn't the easiest to bat on. But Abdul Malik held one end at a sub-40 strike-rate as Sediqullah Atal added runs at the other, going on to score run-a-ball fifty. What the stoic opening stand did was deny Zimbabwe early wickets, and by the time both openers fell, albeit in quick succession, the chase had been set up. Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi got the remaining 35 runs without much fuss and sealed another big win on the tour for Afghanistan.

Brief Scores: Zimbabwe 127 all out in 30.1 overs (Williams 60; Ghazanfar 5-33, Rashid 3-38) lost to Afghanistan 131/2 in 26.5 overs (Sediqullah Atal 52; Trevor Gwandu 1-27) by 8 wickets