The left-arm Afghanistan fast bowler, Fazalhaq Farooqi, has been penalized 15% of his match fees for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct during the second of the three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe in Harare, which his side went on to win by 232 runs having bundled out the home side for just 54 runs in their defense of 287 runs.
The violation for the Afghanistan player falls under Article 2.8 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which addressed ‘showing dissent at an umpire’s decision during an international match.’
The incident took place during the fifth over of the defense for the touring side in the second innings, when Farooqi, the left-arm pace bowler, displayed disagreement with the umpire on the back of the leg before the stump decision against Craig Ervine was turned down. He made a sign to request for the review despite knowing that the Decision Review System (DRS) hadn’t been available for the match.
Afghanistan’s Fazalhaq Farooqi was fined 15% of his match fees
That led to the addition of one demerit point for the bowler in his disciplinary record, for whom it was the first offense in 24 months. The bowler, at the end of the game, accepted the offense and the sanction that was proposed by the match referee, Andy Pycroft, which was leveled by the other on-field umpires, Chris Brown and Percival Sizara, third umpire Langton Rusere and the fourth umpire Iknow Chabi.
Earlier in the contest, the home side captain, Sikandar Raza, won the toss and decided to bowl first at the Harare Sports Club after the opening clash of the series was washed out due to persistent rain. The two openers of the Afghanistan side, Sediqullah Atal and Abdul Malik, gave a thumping platform to the visitors with a 191-run stand.
Malik was dismissed on 84 runs, shouldered on 11 boundaries and one six at a strike rate of 83.17, while Atal celebrated his maiden century in the 50-over format in just his fourth innings, as he finished with 104 runs in 128 balls with a strike rate of over 80 with the help of eight boundaries and four over-boundaries. The middle order struggled a bit with their captain, Hashmatullah Shahidi, remaining unbeaten on 29 runs in 30 deliveries at a strike rate of just under 100.
As many as 24 wides were bowled in the contest by the Zimbabwe side, as Afghanistan finished with 286/6 in their allotted 50 overs. The chase didn’t even start for the home side, as they kept on losing wickets at regular points. Inside the first powerplay of the chase, the home side were already four down.
Only two of their batters, Raza, the leading run-getter of the innings, and Sean Williams made their way to double-digit scores. Fazalhaq ended with figures of 2/15 in six overs, while Allah Ghazanfar and Naveed Zadran shared three wickets each between them to destroy the home side for just 54 runs in 17.5 overs.
This helped the Afghanistan side to claim a 232-run victory, their largest margin in terms of runs in the 50-over format. The third ODI of the series will take place on December 21 before the attention moves to the iconic Boxing Day Test from December 26 at the Queens Park Oval in Bulawayo and Zimbabwe’s first-ever hosted New Year’s Test.