Sediqullah Atal scored his first one-day international century as Afghanistan knocked out Zimbabwe by 232 runs in Harare on Thursday to open the three-match series 1-0.
Atal (104) and Abdul Malik (84) combined for 191 runs for the first wicket and captain Hashmatullah Shahidi with 29 in a row put the visitors on 286-6 in 50 overs.
Zimbabwe who were on the toss had started badly as Ben Curran came off the final ball of the opening over to get out.
Only Sikandar Raza (19) and Sean Williams (16) scored more than once as the home side was bowled out for 54 in 17.5 overs at Harare Sports Club.
Afghanistan bowlers Allah Ghazanfar (3-9), Naveed Zadran (3-13) and Fazalhaq Farooqi (2-15) ravaged.
“I’m really happy with the performance, as well as the team. We played an awesome cricket match,” said player of the match Atal.
“Abdul and I coped well. We made it work for each other, that’s why we got it and the team got it. But I did get a little jittery towards the end of the century.
Shahidi: “It was amazing to see how the openers batted. The credit goes to them. They were a class apart from all of us.
“The wicket was a little hard when I was batting. I thought we had more than enough runs to prevail. We gave 100 per cent and did OK.
“Everyone plays their part in this team and everyone knows his role. We want to continue with shows like this”.
Atal, 23, who first played ODI cricket last month, hit four sixes and eight fours in 128-ball knock before falling to Newman Nyamhuri (3-53).
In the other match, Malik was out to Nyamhuri in his second ODI after an innings of six and 11 fours.
For Zimbabwe in the 50 over tournament, another gloomy day was thrown their way when the opening match against Afghanistan two days earlier was postponed by an hour due to rain.
Zimbabwe had the unfortunate joint with the US of the lowest ODI international score at 35 against Sri Lanka in Harare in 2004.
Their 38, against Sri Lanka in Colombo, and 44 against Bangladesh in Chattogram are the seven lowest ODI scores.
Brief scores:
Afghanistan 286-6 in 50 overs (Sediqullah Atal 104, Abdul Malik 84, Hashmatullah Shahidi 29 not out; Newman Nyamhuri 3-53, Trevor Gwandu 2-70) v Zimbabwe 54 in 17.5 overs(Sikandar Raza 19 not out, Sean Williams 16; Allah Ghazanfar 3-9, Naveed Zadran 3-13, Fazalhaq Farooqi 2-15).