Afghanistan became Test match cricket's 11th and fourth quickest winner on Monday (March 18) when they achieved a seven-wicket victory against Ireland in Dehradun. The Asian giants scripted their maiden Test win in less than two years after they were awarded full member status by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and hence, skipper Asghar Afghan was effusive in praise for his team that may continue rewriting the history books.

"Happy," Afghan said at the post-match presentation ceremony. "It's a historic day for Afghanistan, for our team and our people, We have been playing for a while, we have been playing first-class cricket, so we have that composure."

"The bowlers were very good, Rashid [Khan], Yamin [Ahmadzai]. Now, we are going to South Africa for World Cup preparation. We will try our best to play good cricket."

Wrist-spinner Rashid Khan and middle-order batsman Rahmat Shah especially stood out for their side in this match. While Rashid picked up 5/82 in the second innings to become his country's first bowler with a Test five-fer, the exceptionally organised Rahmat played two very fine knocks of 98 and 76. The two youngsters played massive roles in ensuring a forever memorable triumph for their brave nation and its people. 

Rahmat was later awarded "Player-of-the-Match" for his magnificent twin half-centuries and he said, "I would like to congratulate the country for this historic win. The wicket in the ODIs was more suited to spin and this wicket was more suitable for batting and glad to have scored some runs for my team. I stayed at the wicket and we played session by session. Want to give credit to the bowlers, they bowled really well."

Ireland captain William Porterfield was left disappointed by the result and the overall performance from his unit. The visitors were bundled out for just  172 and 288 either side of Afghanistan's 314 in the first innings. The hosts then chased down the target of 147 runs on Day 4 with only three wickets down. 

"It was always gonna be tough ask today," Porterfield said. "First innings didn't go to plan for us. When you win the toss and bat first you have to capitalize on that, if we batted anywhere close to how we batted in the second innings, it could have been different."

"Take nothing away from Afghanistan - they are the deserved winners and they played really well. Still, our second game and quite a few players made their debut and I'm sure some of them want to kick-on and contribute more. It's been a long tour, but the lads have been very good. You are never tired to play Test cricket, it's always a special feeling," he concluded.