In his very first series as the head coach of Afghanistan, Inzamam Ul Haq has indeed made a colossal difference. In a historic series win for the war-torn nation, the Afghans went on to beat Zimbabwe 3-2 in the ODI series in their own backyard. Following that, the Asian side also defeated the hosts 2-0 in the T20I series, chasing big totals in both the games. Inzamam has credit the passion of the Afghans for the epic win.
“The boys’ passion is key because they have really worked hard in the nets and have applied what we are doing in the practice session to the games,” Inzamam said. “I think that’s the key and the boys really wanted to win. That’s the main thing,” said Afghanistan’s coach.
Zimbabwe’s Sean Williams scored a fantastic ton in the fifth ODI, though it ended in a losing cause. Williams spoke about the T20I’s and said, The plan was to have me up the order and give me more time to bat because obviously in the last game, I struggled to get the spinners away. It was just one of those games for me, that last game,” Williams said. “But today with the field up in the ring it allows me to play my shots – like the reverse sweep or sweep – and those are my strengths. I felt Chamu Chibhabha got a decent ball first up. Even though we had lost wickets in the last game we were only 153 for 5. Coming into this game, we were like, ‘Well guys this rather be 156 all out than having everybody sitting in the hut.’ So it gave me the feeling of the license to just go and actually play my shots.”
Zimbabwe’s skipper Elton Chigumbura praised Afghanistan and said that his side would have to further improve. “I am part of the team and it’s obviously disappointing to lose both formats,”Chigumbura said. “We didn’t play some good cricket in the games that we have played. I thought today it was a much better performance looking at the way we batted, compared to the last game. Obviously a T20 is a tight game and it can go either way. I thought towards the end when we were bowling, we didn’t execute our yorkers well, and what they did to us in the end made a big difference.”