India and Afghanistan clashed in a historic Test match that marked the longer format debut of Afghanistan at the international stage. Afghanistan, along with Ireland, earned the Test status in 2017 and Ireland became the 11th Test nation, as they played their debut game against Pakistan.
Afghanistan became the 12th Test playing nation on June 14, 2018, as their captain Asghar Stanikzai walked out for the toss. Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and chose to bat first and India ended the first day on 347/6 as Shikhar Dhawan slammed a century (107) before the lunch session on day 1, becoming the first batsman from India to achieve the feat. His opening partner Murali Vijay too brought up his 12th Test century (105) and KL Rahul (54) gave a valuable contribution.
Afghanistan had pulled back the momentum after the first two sessions, as India were 280/2 at one stage. Yamin Ahmadzai was the pick of the bowlers, while Rashid Khan went for runs in his debut Test, finding it hard to bowl in the longer format.
The second day saw Hardik Pandya take matters into his own hands and slammed 71 in 94 balls and thanks to cameos from Jadeja (20) and Umesh Yadav (26*), India finished on 474 runs. Yamin Ahmadzai picked 3/51, while Wafadar (2/100) and Rashid (2/154) were the other wicket-takers for Afghanistan.
Afghanistan came out to bat with the intent of showing their mettle in their debut Test, but Indian bowlers ran through their batting easily. Ishant Sharma (2/28) provided early inroads and then Ravindra Jadeja (2/18) and R Ashwin (4/27) brought the house down on Afghan batting. Mohammad Nabi top scored with 24 and was the only batsman to cross the 20 run mark. Afghanistan was bowled out for 109 runs in 27.5 overs.
Afghan batsmen were not sure of the pace at which Indian quicks bowled and the length was completely different for them, as they were used to playing the limited overs format.
Afghanistan was asked to follow-on by Indian captain Ajinkya Rahane and though the openers started off positively, Umesh Yadav picked three quick wickets Shahzad, Ahmadi, and Nabi (for a duck) to rattle the Afghan batting lineup. Captain Asghar Stanikzai scored 25 before Jadeja dismissed him and Hasmatullah Shahidi (36*) too resisted with good will. Then, it was just a formality to wrap up the innings and Indian bowlers did just that.
Jadeja was amazing with the ball, picking 6 wickets in the match for 35 runs including 4/17 in the second innings.
Afghanistan was bowled out for 103 in their second innings, giving India their biggest win by an innings and 262 runs. This also made India the first Asian side to win a Test in two days.
Indian bowlers performed with clinical precision and didn’t let Afghanistan batsmen settle down. Ajinkya Rahane provided aggressive fields to his bowlers and they responded nicely.
BRIEF SCORES:
INDIA 474 (S DHAWAN 107, M Vijay 105; Y AHMADZAI 3/51) defeated
AFGHANISTAN 109 (M NABI 24; R ASHWIN 4/27) and 103 f/o(H SHAHIDI 36*; R JADEJA 4/17) by an innings and 262 runs
