Afghanistan vs Zimbabwe, 1st T20I 2026 – Scorecard, Report and Highlights
Afghanistan beat Zimbabwe by 37 runs at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Tuesday night, recovering from 18 for 3 inside three overs to post 177 and then bowling Zimbabwe out for 140 with five balls to spare. They lead the three-match series 1-0.
For a little over two overs this looked like a night Zimbabwe would remember for the right reasons. A debutant seamer had two wickets, Afghanistan’s captain was already back in the pavilion, and the scoreboard read 18 for 3 after seventeen deliveries. Then Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai hit fifty from twenty balls and the match was gone.
Result at a glance
| Team | Score | Overs | Run rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Afghanistan | 177 all out | 19.5 | 8.92 |
| Zimbabwe | 140 all out | 19.1 | 7.30 |
Afghanistan won by 37 runs · Player of the Match: Rashid Khan (30 off 10, and 2 for 20) · Toss: Zimbabwe, chose to field
Eighteen for three, and then the rebuild nobody expected
Sikandar Raza won the toss and bowled, which at Sharjah under lights is rarely a controversial call, and for three overs it looked inspired. Brad Evans removed Ibrahim Zadran in the second over, caught by Brian Bennett for 5. Then Ernest Masuku, playing his first international, took two wickets in the powerplay — Sediqullah Atal caught behind for 2, and Mohammad Akram lbw for 4 two balls later.
The Akram decision is worth a sentence of its own. ESPNcricinfo reported that no DRS was available for this match and that replays suggested the ball was going over the stumps. Whatever the merits, Afghanistan had no way of asking the question, and they were 18 for 3 in the third over.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Shahidullah Kamal then had to do something Afghanistan’s top order is not often asked to do, which is bat time. They added 27 across thirty-five balls — slow by the standards of this batting order, and exactly what the situation demanded. Afghanistan reached the end of the powerplay on 31 for 3, having scored thirteen runs in the last three overs of it.
Gurbaz fell for 18 off 21 in the ninth over, caught by Raza off Wellington Masakadza, and the scorecard records it flatly as a catch; ESPNcricinfo’s description of it was rather warmer. Azmatullah Omarzai went for 7, caught and bowled by Raza off a googly, and Afghanistan were 66 for 5 in the twelfth over. At that point they had faced sixty-eight balls and scored sixty-six runs, and half the side was out.
Fifty-one balls later they had 177.
Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai’s 22-ball 52 was the innings of the match
Ahmadzai came in at number seven with the innings in genuine trouble and simply refused to treat it as a rescue job. He reached fifty from twenty balls and finished with 52 from 22, with four fours and four sixes at a strike rate of 236.36.
What made it work was that Shahidullah Kamal, at the other end, had already done the patient half. Kamal had come in at 18 for 3 and was still there, and by the time he was out for 46 off 42 — caught by Ryan Burl off Newman Nyamhuri in the seventeenth over — he had hit three sixes of his own and watched Ahmadzai take the innings somewhere it had no right to go. Their sixth-wicket stand was worth 57 from 29 balls.
The over-by-over markers tell the shape of it. Afghanistan reached fifty in 9.3 overs, a hundred in 14.1, and a hundred and fifty in 17.5. That is fifty runs in the twenty-two balls between the hundred and the hundred and fifty, which is the stretch where the match was decided.
Ahmadzai fell at 156 for 7 in the nineteenth over, caught by Burl off Evans. By then Rashid Khan was in, and Rashid does not need long.
Rashid Khan, batting at eight, made 30 from 10
Ibrahim Zadran captains this Afghanistan side, which meant Rashid walked out at number eight with eleven balls of the innings left and nothing to protect. He hit one four and four sixes in a ten-ball 30, a strike rate of 300, and added 33 from twelve balls with Ahmadzai for the seventh wicket.
He was out at 174 for 8 in the twentieth over, caught by Wessly Madhevere off Nyamhuri, and Afghanistan lost their last two wickets for three runs after that to be bowled out with one ball of the innings unused. That is not the tidiest way to finish, but 177 on this ground, having been 66 for 5, is a total that wins most matches.
Nyamhuri finished with 4 for 31 from 3.5 overs, the best figures of the night by some distance and a return that would look better still had he not also sent down five wides. Evans took 2 for 34, Masuku 2 for 41 on debut. Masakadza’s four overs cost 38 and Raza’s four cost 33. Between them Zimbabwe’s five bowlers conceded every single one of Afghanistan’s 177 runs: there were no byes and no leg byes in the innings at all, which is a small tribute to Tadiwanashe Marumani’s keeping on a night when very little else went Zimbabwe’s way.
Zimbabwe’s chase: well set at 94 for 4, all out for 140
Chasing 178, Zimbabwe lost Ben Curran in the third over, caught by Omarzai off Fazalhaq Farooqi for 7, and then rebuilt sensibly. Brian Bennett and Innocent Kaia added 36 from thirty-four balls, and Zimbabwe reached the end of their powerplay on 38 for 1 — seven ahead of where Afghanistan had been at the same stage.
Rashid Khan ended that. He bowled Kaia with a googly in the eighth over for 24, and Bennett followed in the tenth, caught by Shahidullah Kamal off Mujeeb Ur Rahman for 13 from 18 balls. Zimbabwe were 56 for 3 at the halfway mark, needing 122 from sixty balls.
For a while Ryan Burl and Sikandar Raza made it look conceivable. They put on 38 from twenty-five balls for the fourth wicket, Raza making 17 from 13 with a four and a six, and when Raza fell — caught by Omarzai off Mujeeb at 94 for 4 in the fourteenth over — Zimbabwe needed 84 from thirty-eight balls with six wickets standing. Not likely, but not finished.
It finished very quickly after that. Marumani was trapped lbw by Rashid for 7. Burl, who top-scored with 32 from 24 including two sixes, was caught by Shahidullah Kamal in the seventeenth over at 111 for 6. Wessly Madhevere hit 17 from eight balls in a brief flare of resistance and was caught by Sediqullah Atal off Shahidullah Kamal at 127 for 7. Brad Evans was lbw to Omarzai at 132, and Ernest Masuku was bowled by Omarzai one ball later for a first-ball duck.
From 94 for 4, Zimbabwe lost six wickets for 46 runs. Newman Nyamhuri was the last out, caught by Rashid off Farooqi in the final over, with Masakadza unbeaten on 7 from two balls at the other end.
Farooqi’s 3 for 13 was the quietest great spell of the night
Rashid took the match award for his 30 and his two wickets, and the batting half of that was spectacular enough to justify it. But the best bowling figures on the Afghanistan card belonged to Fazalhaq Farooqi: 3 for 13 from 3.1 overs, an economy rate of 4.10 on a night when the other nine bowlers in the match went at 7.30 or worse.
He took the first wicket of the chase and the last. In between, Rashid’s four overs cost twenty at an economy of exactly five, and Mujeeb Ur Rahman’s four cost twenty-seven with two wickets — though five wides in that spell is the sort of detail Afghanistan’s coaches will mention. Noor Ahmad was the one Afghan bowler who had a difficult night, three overs for 28 without a wicket. Shahidullah Kamal, who had already made 46, was handed a single over and took a wicket in it.
Zimbabwe gave away ten extras to Afghanistan’s six, nine of theirs in wides. In a match decided by 37, that is not the difference, but it is the kind of margin a side chasing 178 cannot keep handing over.
Rashid Khan is one wicket from 200 in T20Is
The number worth carrying into Thursday is not 37. It is 199.
ESPNcricinfo recorded the lbw that removed Marumani as Rashid Khan’s 199th T20I wicket. The arithmetic checks out from the other direction too: a published all-time wickets list updated on 13 October 2026 had him on 197, and he took two here.
Rashid has led the all-time T20I wicket-taking list for some time, and he leads it comfortably — Adil Rashid of England is next on 171, twenty-eight behind. No bowler has yet reached 200 wickets in the format. One more, in Sharjah on Thursday, and Rashid Khan gets there first.
Full scorecard: Afghanistan innings
Afghanistan 177 all out (19.5 overs)
| Batter | Dismissal | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk) | c Sikandar Raza b Wellington Masakadza | 18 | 21 | 2 | 0 | 85.71 |
| Ibrahim Zadran (c) | c Brian Bennett b Brad Evans | 5 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 83.33 |
| Sediqullah Atal | c Tadiwanashe Marumani b Ernest Masuku | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Mohammad Akram | lbw b Ernest Masuku | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 200.00 |
| Shahidullah Kamal | c Ryan Burl b Newman Nyamhuri | 46 | 42 | 2 | 3 | 109.52 |
| Azmatullah Omarzai | c and b Sikandar Raza | 7 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 87.50 |
| Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai | c Ryan Burl b Brad Evans | 52 | 22 | 4 | 4 | 236.36 |
| Rashid Khan | c Wessly Madhevere b Newman Nyamhuri | 30 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 300.00 |
| Noor Ahmad | c Brad Evans b Newman Nyamhuri | 6 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 150.00 |
| Mujeeb Ur Rahman | c Sikandar Raza b Newman Nyamhuri | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Fazalhaq Farooqi | not out | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Extras | 6 (b 0, lb 0, w 6, nb 0, p 0) | |||||
| Total | 177 all out (19.5 overs, RR 8.92) | |||||
Zimbabwe bowling
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | NB | WD | Econ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newman Nyamhuri | 3.5 | 0 | 31 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 8.10 |
| Brad Evans | 4 | 0 | 34 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8.50 |
| Ernest Masuku | 4 | 0 | 41 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 10.20 |
| Wellington Masakadza | 4 | 0 | 38 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9.50 |
| Sikandar Raza (c) | 4 | 0 | 33 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8.20 |
Afghanistan fall of wickets
| Wkt | Batter | Score | Over |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ibrahim Zadran | 11-1 | 1.5 |
| 2 | Sediqullah Atal | 14-2 | 2.4 |
| 3 | Mohammad Akram | 18-3 | 2.6 |
| 4 | Rahmanullah Gurbaz | 45-4 | 8.5 |
| 5 | Azmatullah Omarzai | 66-5 | 11.2 |
| 6 | Shahidullah Kamal | 123-6 | 16.1 |
| 7 | Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai | 156-7 | 18.1 |
| 8 | Rashid Khan | 174-8 | 19.2 |
| 9 | Noor Ahmad | 175-9 | 19.4 |
| 10 | Mujeeb Ur Rahman | 177-10 | 19.5 |
Afghanistan partnerships
| Wkt | Batters | Runs (balls) |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Rahmanullah Gurbaz 3 (5) · Ibrahim Zadran 5 (6) | 11 (11) |
| 2nd | Rahmanullah Gurbaz 1 (3) · Sediqullah Atal 2 (2) | 3 (5) |
| 3rd | Rahmanullah Gurbaz 0 (0) · Mohammad Akram 4 (2) | 4 (2) |
| 4th | Rahmanullah Gurbaz 14 (13) · Shahidullah Kamal 13 (22) | 27 (35) |
| 5th | Azmatullah Omarzai 7 (8) · Shahidullah Kamal 14 (7) | 21 (15) |
| 6th | Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai 37 (16) · Shahidullah Kamal 19 (13) | 57 (29) |
| 7th | Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai 15 (6) · Rashid Khan 18 (6) | 33 (12) |
| 8th | Noor Ahmad 6 (3) · Rashid Khan 12 (4) | 18 (7) |
| 9th | Noor Ahmad 0 (1) · Mujeeb Ur Rahman 1 (1) | 1 (2) |
| 10th | Fazalhaq Farooqi 0 (0) · Mujeeb Ur Rahman 0 (1) | 2 (1) |
Mandatory powerplay (overs 0.1–6): 31 runs for the loss of 3 wickets.
Full scorecard: Zimbabwe innings
Zimbabwe 140 all out (19.1 overs)
| Batter | Dismissal | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brian Bennett | c Shahidullah Kamal b Mujeeb Ur Rahman | 13 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 72.22 |
| Ben Curran | c Azmatullah Omarzai b Fazalhaq Farooqi | 7 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 87.50 |
| Innocent Kaia | b Rashid Khan | 24 | 26 | 2 | 1 | 92.31 |
| Ryan Burl | c Shahidullah Kamal b Fazalhaq Farooqi | 32 | 24 | 0 | 2 | 133.33 |
| Sikandar Raza (c) | c Azmatullah Omarzai b Mujeeb Ur Rahman | 17 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 130.77 |
| Tadiwanashe Marumani (wk) | lbw b Rashid Khan | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 116.67 |
| Wessly Madhevere | c Sediqullah Atal b Shahidullah Kamal | 17 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 212.50 |
| Brad Evans | lbw b Azmatullah Omarzai | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 66.67 |
| Newman Nyamhuri | c Rashid Khan b Fazalhaq Farooqi | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 66.67 |
| Ernest Masuku | b Azmatullah Omarzai | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Wellington Masakadza | not out | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 350.00 |
| Extras | 10 (b 0, lb 1, w 9, nb 0, p 0) | |||||
| Total | 140 all out (19.1 overs, RR 7.30) | |||||
Afghanistan bowling
| Bowler | O | M | R | W | NB | WD | Econ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fazalhaq Farooqi | 3.1 | 0 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4.10 |
| Azmatullah Omarzai | 4 | 0 | 39 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9.80 |
| Mujeeb Ur Rahman | 4 | 0 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 6.80 |
| Rashid Khan | 4 | 0 | 20 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5.00 |
| Noor Ahmad | 3 | 0 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9.30 |
| Shahidullah Kamal | 1 | 0 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12.00 |
Zimbabwe fall of wickets
| Wkt | Batter | Score | Over |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ben Curran | 12-1 | 2.2 |
| 2 | Innocent Kaia | 48-2 | 7.6 |
| 3 | Brian Bennett | 56-3 | 9.3 |
| 4 | Sikandar Raza | 94-4 | 13.4 |
| 5 | Tadiwanashe Marumani | 107-5 | 15.2 |
| 6 | Ryan Burl | 111-6 | 16.1 |
| 7 | Wessly Madhevere | 127-7 | 17.4 |
| 8 | Brad Evans | 132-8 | 18.2 |
| 9 | Ernest Masuku | 132-9 | 18.3 |
| 10 | Newman Nyamhuri | 140-10 | 19.1 |
Zimbabwe partnerships
| Wkt | Batters | Runs (balls) |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Brian Bennett 3 (6) · Ben Curran 7 (8) | 12 (14) |
| 2nd | Brian Bennett 7 (8) · Innocent Kaia 24 (26) | 36 (34) |
| 3rd | Brian Bennett 3 (4) · Ryan Burl 4 (5) | 8 (9) |
| 4th | Sikandar Raza 17 (13) · Ryan Burl 21 (12) | 38 (25) |
| 5th | Tadiwanashe Marumani 7 (6) · Ryan Burl 5 (4) | 13 (10) |
| 6th | Wessly Madhevere 2 (2) · Ryan Burl 2 (3) | 4 (5) |
| 7th | Wessly Madhevere 15 (6) · Brad Evans 1 (3) | 16 (9) |
| 8th | Newman Nyamhuri 1 (1) · Brad Evans 3 (3) | 5 (4) |
| 9th | Newman Nyamhuri 0 (0) · Ernest Masuku 0 (1) | 0 (1) |
| 10th | Newman Nyamhuri 1 (2) · Wellington Masakadza 7 (2) | 8 (4) |
Mandatory powerplay (overs 0.1–6): 38 runs for the loss of 1 wicket.
Match details
| Match | Afghanistan v Zimbabwe, 1st T20I, Afghanistan v Zimbabwe in UAE 2026 |
|---|---|
| Date | Tuesday 27 October 2026 (night match) |
| Start | 6:30 PM local (GST) · 2:30 PM GMT · 8:00 PM IST |
| Venue | Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah |
| Toss | Zimbabwe won the toss and chose to field |
| Result | Afghanistan won by 37 runs |
| Player of the Match | Rashid Khan (30 off 10, 2 for 20) |
| Umpires | Ahmad Shah Pakteen, Farooq Khan |
| Third umpire | Ahmed Shah Durrani |
| Match referee | Hamimullah Hamid |
| Series | Afghanistan lead the three-match T20I series 1-0 |
Afghanistan
In batting order: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran (c), Sediqullah Atal, Mohammad Akram, Shahidullah Kamal, Azmatullah Omarzai, Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi.
Bench: Noor ul Rahman, Abdullah Ahmadzai, Fareed Ahmad Malik, Abdullah Tarakhail. Support staff: Richard Pybus, Hamid Hassan, Andrew Puttick.
Zimbabwe
In batting order: Brian Bennett, Ben Curran, Innocent Kaia, Ryan Burl, Sikandar Raza (c), Tadiwanashe Marumani (wk), Wessly Madhevere, Brad Evans, Newman Nyamhuri, Ernest Masuku, Wellington Masakadza.
Bench: Kundai Matigimu, Blessing Muzarabani, Tafadzwa Tsiga, Vincent Masekesa. Support staff: Justin Sammons, Dion Ebrahim, Courtney Walsh, Stuart Matsikenyeri.
Six numbers from Sharjah
| 18/3 | Afghanistan’s score after seventeen balls, with a debutant holding two of the wickets |
|---|---|
| 111 | Runs Afghanistan scored from the fall of the fifth wicket to the end of the innings, in 51 balls |
| 20 | Balls Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai took to reach fifty; he finished on 52 from 22 |
| 4.10 | Fazalhaq Farooqi’s economy rate — every other bowler in the match went at 5.00 or more |
| 6 for 46 | Zimbabwe’s collapse from 94 for 4 to all out |
| 199 | Rashid Khan’s T20I wicket tally after this match, per ESPNcricinfo |
Frequently asked questions
Who won the Afghanistan vs Zimbabwe 1st T20I in 2026?
Afghanistan won by 37 runs. They made 177 all out in 19.5 overs and bowled Zimbabwe out for 140 in 19.1 overs at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on 27 October 2026.
Who was Player of the Match?
Rashid Khan, for 30 off 10 balls with four sixes and bowling figures of 2 for 20 from his four overs.
What was the highest score of the match?
Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai’s 52 from 22 balls for Afghanistan, with four fours and four sixes. He reached fifty from twenty deliveries. Shahidullah Kamal made 46 from 42, and Ryan Burl top-scored for Zimbabwe with 32 from 24.
Who took the most wickets?
Newman Nyamhuri with 4 for 31 from 3.5 overs for Zimbabwe. Fazalhaq Farooqi had the best economy of the match with 3 for 13 from 3.1 overs.
How close is Rashid Khan to 200 T20I wickets?
One. ESPNcricinfo recorded his dismissal of Tadiwanashe Marumani as his 199th wicket in the format. He already leads the all-time T20I list, so the 200th would be the first by any bowler.
When is the 2nd T20I between Afghanistan and Zimbabwe?
Thursday 29 October 2026 at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, with the third and final T20I on Sunday 1 November. Two Tests follow, on 5 and 13 November, also at Sharjah.
What happens next
Zimbabwe will look at this scorecard and find more to like in it than the margin suggests. They had Afghanistan 18 for 3 and 66 for 5. Ernest Masuku took two wickets on debut. Nyamhuri took four. Burl and Raza put on 38 in twenty-five balls in a chase that was, briefly, alive.
What they did not do was finish either half of the match. Afghanistan’s last five wickets added 111 and Zimbabwe’s last six lost 46, and in a format of 120 balls those two sequences are the whole story. Sikandar Raza’s side get two days to work out how to close a game out, and then they go again at the same ground.
For Afghanistan the headline is Ahmadzai, who at number seven turned a losing position into a winning total in twenty-two balls. The subplot is Rashid, sitting one wicket from a landmark nobody in the sport has reached, with four overs due to him on Thursday night.
