Asghar Afghan breaks MS Dhoni's record to become most successful captain in T20Is

Abu Dhabi, March 21: Afghanistan cricket team thrashed Zimbabwe by 47 runs in the third T20I and clean swept the series 3-0 at Sheikh Abu Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi on Saturday (March 20). With this, Afghanistan's captain Asghar Afghan overtook former India captain overtakes MS Dhoni's record of most T20I wins as captain with his 42nd win.

Afghan (33) had equalled the T20 World Cup-winning Indian captain's record of 41 T20I wins as a skipper in the previous game and went on surpassing the legendary India cricketer's record in the subsequent match.

Dhoni - who lifted the World T20 in 2007 - led Team India in 72 T20Is before stepping down as the skipper of the limited-overs format in 2017 and won 41 of those. Afghan, meanwhile, has captained his national side in 52 matches and won 42.

England captain Eoin Morgan is third on the list with 33 wins in 58 games. Former Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed secured 29 wins in 37 T20Is. Two-time T20 WC-winning captain Darren Sammy-led West Indies to 27 victories out of 47 matches he led the side.

After electing to bat, Afghanistan posted 183/7 courtesy Najibullah Zadran's brilliant 35-ball 72*. Zimbabwe were restricted to 136/5 in their response, giving the hosts a fine series victory.

They got off to a decent start after winning the toss thanks to Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Usman Ghani. Gurbaz (18) attempted to muscle the ball around but found the fielders on multiple occasions, and it wasn't long before he perished, to the left-arm quick Richard Ngarava, edging one behind.

Despite that, Afghanistan accumulated 43 runs in the Powerplay. Ghani was joined by Karim Janat in the middle. Janat made a quick 14-ball 21, but his efforts were put to a stop by Wellington Masakadza, who cleaned him up. Thereafter, Ghani (39) gave away his wicket attempting to go big, only to find the fielder in the deep.

Veteran Mohammad Nabi was dismissed cheaply for two runs thereafter, with Musakanda taking a diving catch. Zimbabwe couldn't make the wickets count, however, with Najibullah in incredible form. His sublime 72 off 35 balls, which consisted of five fours and five sixes, along with Asghar Afghan's 24 runs propelled them to a daunting total, with Zimbabwe conceding 78 in the last five overs.

Zimbabwe got off to a poor start when they lost Kamunhukamwe (1) in the very first over. Wickets continued to fall regularly, with Sean Williams (14), Musakanda (30), Milton Shumba (8), and Richmond Mutumbami (0) all falling tamely as Zimbabwe were reduced to 56/5 in 10.3 overs.

With half the side back in the dressing room, the 80-run-partnership of Sikander Raza and Ryan Burl helped control the damage. But it was too little too late for the visitors to avoid the sweep.