5:09pm That's the end of proceedings. Thanks for staying with us from the first T20I between Zimbabwe and Afghanistan. Do check back later for Sreshth's report. On behalf of our scorer, George Binoy, Sresth and myself, it's goodbye. Toodles!

5:00pm Here's what the players had to say after the game:

Sikandar Raza, captain of Zimbabwe: I thought Afghanistan played really well in the powerplay and we brought it back as well. We do a lot of things right but then lost it at the end and this happened today as well. It was a very good wicket, 180 was chase-able. We weren't on par in all three departments today. We weren't precise enought. There were a couple of dismissals in the top five that could have been boundaries. I'm backing out batting to come good. Had we had wickets at the end it could have been different. Brad and Maposa gave us something to cheer about.

Azmatullah Omarzai, Man of the Match: Happy for the win. Ibrahim and Gurbaz gave us a good start and it was easy to carry the momentum. In bowling, it was a slow wicket and the variatians worked. We have a good bowling unit and we were targetting 160, and 180 was very defendable. I just bowled in the right areas, to the field and it worked to plan.

Rashid Khan, captain of Afghanistan: Pretty happy. We lost our last five T20s - we needed that win and credit to everyone. The openers gave us the base and it was then a brilliant effort from everyone. We knew it was the same team that reached a semifinal, so we knew we didn't need many changed. It's important to start well - we started well with the bat and with the ball and that worked. It's something we missed in the Asia Cup.

4:54 pm 'Runs on the board. Our bowling unit can defend that.' Rashid Khan outlined Afghanistan's plan, and that's precisely how the game played out.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran gave Afghanistan a perfect platform with a quickfire 76-run opening partnership. Azmatullah Omarzai and Shahidullah's cameos added to Zadran's superb 33-ball 52 as the visitors put on 180.

Zimbabwe lost half their side for 30 runs in the chase, with Azmatullah and Mujeeb ur Rahman running through the host's top-order, with Brian Bennett trying gamely at the start. Brad Evans and Tinotenda Maposa put on a fifty-run partnership late on to offer Zimbabwe some hope, but Afghanistan kept striking at regular intervals. Ultimately, it was Mujeeb's four-for and Azmatullah's three-for that knocked over Zimbabwe, with Afghanistan claiming a massive win in the first of three T20Is.

Arquam: "@Sunaadh, Rashid has 2 overs left!" - Stranger things have happened, anyway bit moot now.