Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Afghan in record stand as Afghanistan grind Zimbabwe

Afghanistan’s captain Asghar Afghan became his country’s second Test centurion after Rahmat Shah and played an entertaining innings to cap a commanding opening day for his team in the second Test against Zimbabwe. Afghan shared a record 186-run fourth-wicket partnership with Hashmatullah Shahidi, who is 14 away from becoming Afghanistan third centurion, and built on the foundation laid by young opener Ibrahim Zadran.

The 19-year old scored his third Test fifty and dominated a 50-run second-wicket partnership with Shah, which put Afghanistan on track to go big on a dry, flat track in Abu Dhabi.

Although the venue is the same as the one used for the first Test, the pitch is entirely different. While last week’s strip was green tinged with extra bounce on offer, this week’s is placid though there is suggestion it could take turn later on, perhaps in time for Afghanistan’s legspinner Rashid Khan, who recovered from a finger injury to make the XI, to come into play.

For Zimbabwe, the going was tough and they made use of all seven bowlers at their disposal, with little success. Apart from a hint of swing in the morning, there was no assistance for the seamers and with the cracks only expected to come into play later in the match, the spinners did not have much to work with either.

Blessing Muzarabani adjusted to a fuller length relatively well and Victor Nyauchi found movement with the new ball. Nyauchi enjoyed early success when he found Javed Ahmadi’s outside edge as the opener searched outside offstump and nicked off to Sean Williams at third slip.

Zadran’s technique was tighter than his opening partner’s and he was discerning in his shot selection. He drove an overpitched delivery from Muzarabani down the ground, chipped a half-volley on the pads over midwicket and found the gap between third man and gully. In attempting a different length, Nyauchi tried the short ball to Zadran and he was sent to the midwicket fence.

Shah provided Zadran good support and forced Williams to introduce the change bowlers earlier than he may have liked. After using Muzarabani for an eight-over spell upfront in the first Test, Williams only gave him a five overs here and Donald Tiripano was brought on in the 11th over.

(ESPN Cricinfo)

Brief scores

Afghanistan 307

for 3 (Asghar Afghan 106*, Hashmatulllah Shahidi 86*, Burl 1-34) vs Zimbabwe