So, that is it from myself, Karthik Raj and my co-commentators, Ajay and Dev Rajawat. A note of thanks to our scorers, Danish Elahi and Ashok Dayma.
There is a lot more action coming up in our network including the fixture between Afghanistan and Bangladesh in a couple of days time. There is more exciting ODI and T20I action in Men's and Women's cricket scheduled on Tuesday. So, don't miss out.
Stunning performance from Afghanistan as they almost put one and a half feet in the Final. The onus is now on Bangladesh to beat Afghanistan in the last round-robin game if they want to reach the Final.
Rahmat Shah (Afghanistan Captain): "[On becoming the first Afghan captain in ODIs to register five back-to-back victories] I am also very, very happy. Congratulations on the batting, the bowling, and the fielding; we will try to continue in the same way.
[About the dropped catches in today's contest] Absolutely, we will try our maximum and so that we continue to perform well in all three departments.
[Regarding playing in Sharjah for the next match] We have already discussed and prepared for the conditions, whether it is a Test match, an ODI, or another format. We have familiarised ourselves with the conditions. We will go there prepared for the conditions, whether they favour spin bowlers or fast bowlers, and we will do our best.
[About the late collapse in the batting during the first innings] Absolutely, we got off to a good start and were looking to score 300 or more, even 320. But we lost back-to-back wickets in the middle, and because of those mistakes, our target came down to around 300. If we find ourselves in a similar situation in another match, we will try not to repeat those mistakes and turn 300 into 320 or even more."
Brendan Taylor (Zimbabwe):"[On the overall performance] I think it was a good toss to win. Afghanistan came out and showed a lot of application and high quality. The wicket was pretty docile. We did manage to pull them back but lost too many wickets in the Powerplay and it was always going to be difficult against their world-class spinners. We need a better foundation than this. This could be a result where we draw a line in the sand and put the result past us, just take the learnings forward.
[How much difference did the toss make?] Not much. Didn't swing up front, was always going to swing more under lights but the difference wasn't as big as 300 and 135. Afghanistan outplayed us, nothing is wasted if we learn from it.
[On his run-out after coming in with good form] Definitely, a wasted opportunity. Waste of a wicket on my side. It was a mis-judgement on my part as I was looking to be proactive. Will look back at it. Afghanistan were excellent, well done to them."
Due to cramps, regular captain Sikandar Raza was unavailable, with Brendan Taylor stepping in for the post-match interview.
Sediqullah Atal (POTM): "[On his feelings] Bismillah, thank you. Alhamdulillah, I'm quite happy with the way I'm going these days. So, I'm working hard, really hard, for these kind of days, to contribute to the team and put in a much more impactful innings for my team to win against every side.
[On batting alongside Ibrahim Zadran] He's quite a good player to play with at the crease. So, that's why we have very good communication with each other, and we know each other very well. So, he's telling me, like, "Trust yourself, and you can do it." If we have some dot balls and a good spell from the opposition team, he tells me, and I also tell him to get the basics right and just focus on one ball at a time.
[Did his dismissal pull some runs back out of Afghanistan's total] Yeah, to be honest, we lost back-to-back wickets, which cost us 20 to 30 runs. But we know this surface very well, and we have a very good spin side and also some seamers. So, it will be very helpful for us. We were quite happy with the total, but yeah, we could have done better than this."