Zimbabwe Route 6 by 0 (Gumbie 4*, Curran 1*) Afghanistan 157 (Rashid 25, Raza 3-30, Nyamhuri 3-42, Muzarabani 2-56) by 151 runs
It took Zimbabwe 197 overs and more than two days to take ten wickets from Afghanistan in the opening Test. A few days later, at the same venue, Zimbabwe needed just 44.3 overs and less than two sessions to bowl out Afghanistan for 157 and take early control of the second Test in Bulawayo.
Conditions were very different at the start of the opening day, with persistent rain greeting both teams and the draw being delayed by nearly four hours.
When conditions improved, Craig Ervine did not hesitate to bowl first on what his counterpart Hashmatullah Shahidi described as a “spicy pitch”. Zimbabwe made two changes to their XI from the first Test, bringing in Richard Ngarava and Raza, while Afghanistan made five changes to their team. That included them handing their Test debuts to Fareed Ahmad, Riaz Hassan and Ismat Alam.
The Bulawayo pitch had a green tinge to it, but Muzarabani and Ngarava failed to generate much movement largely due to being on the lower side. Afghanistan openers Abdul Malik and Riaz appeared largely unhurried and managed just 25 runs in the first ten overs.
But a moment of brilliance on the field gave the home side a chance. Riaz pushed a full delivery from Ngarava towards the right of point and dived for a single, only to be returned by Malik quite late. Riaz, who was almost at mid-field, ran back, but Bennett ran to his right, picked up the ball with one hand and with a swift movement broke the stumps at the striker’s end to catch the batsman in his tracks.
In the next over, Nyamhuri got a short ball to rise sharply, thus trapping Malik’s gloves all the way to the keeper.
Shahidi and Rahmat Shah, who had set a record in the initial test, tried to stop the slide. Shahidi started with a fierce cut from Muzarabani over the backward point, while Rahmat also went off the mark with a four, although it went past the goalkeeper’s left.
Rahmat then hit two more fours off Muzarabani but got a reprieve when he got a thick outside edge off Ngarava towards Dion Myers, who dropped a relatively comfortable catch in the gully. Thus, Shahidi and Rahmat arrived at lunch undefeated.
But it didn’t take long for Zimbabwe to attack after the break, with 18-year-old Nyamhuri once again getting into action by squaring Shahidi and trapping him in front of the stumps for 13. Afsar Zazai, another centurion of the First tried, then came in and immediately he oriented himself.
But it was the introduction of Raza into the attack that brought about the fall of Afghanistan. He varied his pace brilliantly, bowled lines from wicket to wicket and made both Rahmat and Zazai hesitate. Nyamhuri also stuck to a plan and induced multiple outside edges before Raza orchestrated a collapse.
Rahmat, unable to push Raza away, attempted to disturb him by attempting a blatant return sweep. But Raza fired the ball down the middle and Rahmat missed and saw his leg stump pinned back. Ngarava then got rid of Zazai with a whiff before Raza cleaned up debutant Alam with a yorker as Afghanistan went from 81 for 3 to 84 for 6 in the space of ten balls.
Rashid Khan unleashed a flurry of punches as soon as he came in, lashing Raza for three consecutive covers. Shahidullah also got his first boundary through a flick of the wrist. Muzarabani, who was wayward all day, finally got the ball to fall into an outside channel and induced a fine edge off Shahidullah’s blade towards the keeper. Rashid then failed to keep a short wide delivery from Muzarabani and the deep spot managed to catch it easily.
When Raza cleaned up Yamin Ahmadzai for his third wicket, the end was near for the visitors. But Zia-ur-Rehman and Fareed added a run-a-ball 27 for the last wicket, with debutant Fareed smashing a four and a six in his 19-ball 17 to take Afghanistan past 150.
Zimbabwe’s first teams survived a difficult 20-minute blast from Afghanistan, and will want to erase the deficit early on day two. Rain and wet outfields allowed only 47.3 overs to be bowled on the opening day, but the Test has already progressed at a brisk pace.
Ashish Pant is Deputy Editor of ESPNcricinfo
