Afghanistan clinches historic maiden test victory
Print Edition
Afghanistan notched a historic maiden win in only its second test match when it defeated Ireland by seven wickets in the one-off test ending yesterday.
Needing 118 runs, Rahmat Shah scored his second half century of the match and Ihsanullah Janat made 50 in his debut test as Afghanistan reached 149-3 just before lunch on the fourth day in the northern Indian city of Dehra Dun.
“It was our dream to play test cricket and today we won a test match so I am very happy for Afghanistan and its people,” Afghanistan captain Asghar Afghan said. “I want to give credit to the bowlers, especially Rashid Khan, Waqar (Salamkheil), Yamin (Ahmadzai) and (Mohammad) Nabi because the wicket was good for batting.”
Leg spinner Rashid claimed the match-haul of 7-102 and played the match while nursing his injured spinning finger.
It was only the second test match for both countries since gaining test status in 2017. Afghanistan lost its inaugural test against India last year before Pakistan beat Ireland.
Man-of-the-match Shah, who missed out on the century in the first innings, falling for 98, played another splendid knock of 76 with 13 fours before he got stumped when Afghanistan required only three runs for victory.
Janat was equally good in scoring an unbeaten 65 off 129 balls as both batsmen dominated the Ireland bowling with attacking shots during their 139-run match-winning stand.
Ireland had an early opportunity to break the stand but Shah was dropped on 19 by Stuart Thompson in left-arm spinner George Dockrell’s second over of the day after Afghanistan resumed on 29-1.
Although Nabi missed Afghanistan’s winning moment on the field when he got run out, Hashmatullah Shahidi got the winning runs when he pulled James Cameron-Dow to the square leg fence off his first delivery.
Ireland captain William Porterfield saw his team’s first-innings effort of 172 as the prime reason for the defeat as Afghanistan replied strongly with 314.
“In any multi-day game, we had to capitalize on the first innings. If we’d done how we’d done in the second innings then, it could have been a completely different game,” Porterfield said.
Ireland fought back in the second innings by scoring 288.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
