Afghanistan vs Zimbabwe ODI series, 2018 – Statistical Highlights

Afghanistan kept their unbeaten series streak intact against Zimbabwe with a convincing 4-1 win in the 5-match ODI series played in Sharjah. The Asian team won their previous three ODI series by a 3-2 margin after levelling their maiden series against them with 2-2. The Afghan side showed their domination over Zimbabwe in the series except for the 2nd ODI in which they lost by a huge 154-run margin. Rashid Khan stole the show by ending as the leading wicket-taker in the series which saw the rise of the young Mujeeb Zadran.

All the stats and numbers that were recorded during the series that was dominated by the Afghans:

0 – Runs made by Zimbabwe in the final ODI for their last four wickets. This is only the 7th instance where a team lost their last four wickets for zero runs in an ODI. Last such instance was by Australia against Sri Lanka in the 2011 Colombo ODI.

7.94 – Bowling average of Rashid Khan in this series where he picked 16 wickets for 127 runs. This is the 2nd best average for any player with 15 and more wickets in an ODI series/tournament. Waqar Younis took 17 wickets in the 1990 Austral-Asia Cup at an average of 7.41.

12 – Rashid Khan took at least two wickets in each of the last 12 ODI innings he bowled. He took 39 wickets in those 12 innings at an average of 8.59 which include two 4-fers and two 5-fers.

16 – Number of wickets for Rashid Khan in this series. These are the joint most by him in a bilateral ODI series. He picked up 16 wickets in the last year’s 5-match ODI series against Ireland in India. Only six other players took 16 and more wickets in a bilateral ODI series with Rashid being the only one to do it twice.

37 – Number of wickets for the Afghanistan spinners in this ODI series. These are the 2nd most number of wickets by the spinners of a team in a bilateral ODI series. Sri Lankan spinners took 38 wickets in the 7-match home ODI series against England in 2014.

51 – A total of 51 wickets went to the spinners in this series – 37 by Afghanistan and 14 for Zimbabwe. This series became the first bilateral ODI series to witness 50 wickets falling to the spinners. The 5-match series between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in 2009/10 had 49 wickets bagged by the spin bowlers.

86 – Rashid Khan took 86 wickets in the 37 ODI matches he played so far which are the most by any player after 37 ODIs. Saqlain Mushtaq and Mitchell Starc took 73 wickets each in their first 37 ODIs.

272 – Rahmat Shah’s 272 runs in this series are the most by an Afghanistan player in a bilateral ODI series. He surpassed his previous best of 262 runs which he scored in the 2017 series against Ireland in India.

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