After Mohammad Shahzad sent Tendai Chatara and Donald Tiripano to the boundary seven times, he laid into Sean Williams. The left-arm spinning allrounder flighted his first ball, which was flat-batted down the ground by Shahzad after making some room. The ball sailed out of the VCA stadium and the umpires had to call for a new one.

After Afghanistan got off to a flying start, Zimbabwe were keen to pull things back, which explained why Williams was so incensed when there was a misfield. Mohammad Nabi had carefully watched a ball that seemed to arrive in slow motion and then pulled it through square leg, where Vusi Sibanda had to move to his left, but misread the bounce. The ball was already past Sibanda when he stuck out an arm in a bid to stop it. His efforts, though, were too late, as the ball snuck away to the boundary, much to Williams' annoyance. He yelled from his position at the end of his mark even as Sibanda offered a hand in apology. Hamilton Masakadza, the captain, would have been expected to diffuse the situation, but he joined the yelling too.

Zimbabwe thought they had their fifth wicket when Samiullah Shenwari slog swept Sikandar Raza to deep midwicket. Malcolm Waller ran in and dove forward to take the catch. Waller was sure he had the ball in his grasp, but Shenwari was not convinced and the decision was sent upstairs. Replays seemed to show that Waller had got his fingers underneath the ball, but the TV umpire Ian Gould decided that he had "conclusive evidence its not out, it bounced in front."

Afghanistan wanted every run as they showed at the end of the innings when Tendai Chatara just missed the yorker. Dawlat Zadran missed the attempted swipe and wicketkeeper Richmond Mutumbami missed the collection. Shafiqullah scurried off for the single at the non-striker's end, but Dawlat did not move. When Mutumbami threw the stumps down, both batsmen were safe at the striker's end. As soon as the ball deflected away, the pair trotted through for a bye.

Zimbabwe's chase meandered and then fizzled out when their great scrapper Williams was stumped. He did not pick the googly from Rashid Khan and missed a slog sweep after stepping out. Shahzad was quick to react and break the stumps. Williams flung his bat up in despair while Shahzad brought out a moonwalk/robot dance in celebration.