Omarzai 116 and Rashid 200 seal series as Afghanistan beat Zimbabwe by 19 runs

A night that refused to follow its script

Afghanistan were 5 for 4, then 38 for 5 — and then 221 for 7. Zimbabwe, chasing 222, were 82 for 5 at halfway and still finished on 202 for 5. Between those scorelines came two centuries, a world bowling landmark and a series sealed with a game to spare, as Afghanistan beat Zimbabwe by 19 runs in the second T20I at Sharjah on Thursday, 29 October 2026, to take an unassailable 2-0 lead.

Zimbabwe won the toss and chose to field, and at first that looked decisive. Brad Evans removed Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Mohammad Akram for ducks, and Kundai Matigimu's double-wicket maiden accounted for captain Ibrahim Zadran and Shahidullah Kamal, also for ducks. Afghanistan were 5 for 4 inside four overs. Sediqullah Atal made 17 before charging debutant Vincent Masekesa and edging behind, leaving Afghanistan 38 for 5 in the ninth over and only 45 for 5 at halfway. Then came the demolition: 176 runs from the last ten overs, including 103 from the last five.

Omarzai turns ruin into a record

Azmatullah Omarzai walked in at number six with the innings in ruins and left as player of the match. He had 20 off 19 balls at halfway, reached fifty off 31, and then took Evans for 27 in one over: two sixes, a full toss hammered through the covers, a ball into the pads launched over long-on, and a carve behind point that completed his maiden T20I hundred off 44 balls. He finished with 116 off 50 balls, including five fours and 12 sixes — the highest score by a batter at number six or lower in a T20I involving Full Member nations, passing Mohammad Nabi's 89 against Ireland in 2017. He holed out to long-off after striking Sikandar Raza for two more sixes, to congratulations from the Zimbabwe captain and a standing ovation from his own dugout.

He did not do it alone. Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai, who had made a fifty in the series opener, made 52 off 27 balls with five fours and three sixes, and the pair added 142 off 59 balls for the sixth wicket. That is the highest partnership for the sixth wicket or lower in T20Is, passing Andre Russell and Sherfane Rutherford's 139 against Australia in 2024, and Afghanistan's highest sixth-wicket stand in the format. Ernest Masuku ended it with the score on 180, Tafadzwa Tsiga diving forward at long-off to take the catch.

Then came the captain. Rashid Khan, arriving with two overs left, finished with an unbeaten 25 off six balls, including four sixes, taking Afghanistan to 221 for 7 — their third-highest T20I total, and the first time a men's T20I team has passed 200 after losing its first four wickets for fewer than 20 runs. Evans finished with 2 for 40; Matigimu also took two wickets, but his last two overs cost 44 runs.

Rashid reaches 200 — and Raza answers

Rashid's night was not finished. He had come into the match on 199 men's T20I wickets, and in his second over of the chase he trapped Tadiwanashe Marumani lbw for two. It was his 200th wicket in the format, in his 120th match, making him the first bowler to reach the landmark in men's T20 internationals. England's Adil Rashid is second with 171, and Hong Kong's Ehsan Khan third with 161. His figures on the night were 1 for 29, with Abdollah Ahmadzai the pick of the attack at 2 for 34.

Zimbabwe's chase had started brightly — Innocent Kaia made 25 and Brian Bennett 22 — but Omarzai removed Kaia, Abdollah dismissed Bennett and Ryan Burl, and Rashid's milestone wicket left them 82 for 5 at halfway, needing 140 from 60 balls. That is when Raza produced one of the great losing innings. The 40-year-old captain combined with debutant Tsiga, unbeaten on 31 off 23 balls, in an unbroken 120-run sixth-wicket stand, reaching his second T20I century off 54 balls. He finished unbeaten on 106 off 56 balls, with five fours and nine sixes; his ninth six, off the final ball, cleared the roof and took Zimbabwe to 202 for 5.

At 40 years and 188 days, Raza became the oldest player to score a T20I century, surpassing Gibraltar's Avinash Pai, who was 39 years and 272 days old against Bulgaria in 2021. "When you are chasing 222, it was about trying to control my emotions," he said. "It hurt me how we conducted ourselves in the first innings. Up until the last two overs, we backed ourselves to win the game."

What it means

The result seals the series before Sunday's third T20I on 1 November, now a dead rubber, and extends Afghanistan's dominance of this rivalry: they have won eight straight T20I series against Zimbabwe, who are yet to win one against them. It also continues a remarkable tour run, with Afghanistan having won all five white-ball matches against Zimbabwe, including three ODIs and two T20Is.

For Afghanistan, the night offered something rarer than a series win: proof that a collapse need not be a conclusion. For Zimbabwe, Raza's hundred — historic, defiant and ultimately in vain — showed the fight in the side, but also the cost of letting a game slip when it was in their hands. Sharjah, once again, had the last word: 423 runs, two centuries, one landmark, and a series decided by a team that refused to accept the position it was in.