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Mehluli Sibanda in BULAWAYO
ZIMBABWE will be looking for a strong finish to the four match One-Day International cricket series against Afghanistan, which will secure the hosts the victory they want, in the last match at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo this morning. After squandering an opportunity to seal off the series when they suffered a two-wicket loss to Afghanistan in the third ODI on Tuesday, Zimbabwe have a chance to settle matters today.

Zimbabwe’s defeat to the Afghans was their first loss to their opponents in ODIs, which must have come as a shock to skipper Brendan Taylor and the rest of the team. It was also just the second triumph by Afghanistan over an International Cricket Council Full Member country with their previous win recorded against fellow Asians, Bangladesh, whom they defeated by 32 runs during this year’s Asia Cup played in March in Bangladesh.

Zimbabwe lead the series 2-1 and must go all out for a win to secure the series while Afghanistan can make sure it ends 2-2 should they cause yet another upset.

After posting what looked a like a competitive score of 261 runs, Zimbabwe saw their bowlers, especially the seamers and part-time spinners hand away the initiative to Afghanistan. Part-time slow bowler, Sikandar Raza, was the most expensive with his five overs costing 41 runs at an economy rate of 8.2 runs per over, pace bowler Shingirai Masakadza gave away 35 runs in the 4.4 overs he sent down, those runs including the six he was hit for by Dawlat Zadran in the last over, which gave the tourists the victory.

Taylor probably got his calculations on the overs wrong as he bowled out his main spinners when he should have reserved one of them for the last over.