A five-wicket haul from 18-year-old spinner AM Ghazanfar sparked another batting collapse for Zimbabwe in the third and final ODI and helped seal the series for Afghanistan 2-0 with an eight-wicket win.

Zimbabwe were put to bat on a fresh pitch and had to score 127 in 31 overs, chasing Afghanistan with 23.1 overs to go at Harare Sports Club.

It was a slow start for the hosts, who scored 54 in the last game. So it was no surprise that Azmatullah Omarzai opened the game from one end with a maiden and that Zimbabwe’s first boundary came in the fifth over when Ben Curran steered an overcooked throw to the long-off fence.

Ghazanfar, who had three wickets in the last game, was brought in to bowl in the first PowerPlay this time and took all five balls to bat. Joylord Gumbie took the first of his five wickets on the day when he achieved a sweep at the top as he struggled to read the spinner. Before Ghazanfar could come back for his next over and put Curran ahead lbw, Omarzai had caught the big wicket of Craig Ervine with an unplayable seed that was just enough to take the outside edge.

There was a semblance of recovery when Sikandar Raza and Sean Williams, who top-scored with a run-a-ball 60, added 36 runs for the fourth wicket. All that was undone when Rashid Khan came into the attack and struck twice in his first two overs. His victims were Raza and the batsman who replaced him at the crease, Brian Bennett. Once the doors opened again, Ghazanfar got going, picking two wickets in two balls en route to his second five-wicket haul in his 11th ODI as Zimbabwe once again found themselves completely at sea against the Afghan spinners.

Richard Ngarava, playing his 50th ODI for Zimbabwe, was one of just four batters to reach double figures and the last man out as the hosts faced the daunting challenge of defending a subpar total. While the pitch provided some support, it was nowhere near enough to make the goal defensible.

Afghanistan didn’t perform with all their might, which is a sign that the pitch wasn’t exactly the easiest of games. But Abdul Malik held on at one end with a strike rate of under 40 while Sediqullah Atal added runs at the other end to score a run-a-ball fifty. What the stoic opening stand did was deny Zimbabwe early wickets and when both openers fell, albeit in quick succession, the chase was on. Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi managed the remaining 35 runs without any fuss and ensured Afghanistan another big win on the tour.

Short results: Zimbabwe 127 all out in 30.1 overs (Williams 60; Ghazanfar 5-33, Rashid 3-38) lost to Afghanistan 131/2 in 26.5 overs (Sediqullah Atal 52; Trevor Gwandu 1-27) by 8 wickets