The first match of the Test series between Zimbabwe and Afghanistan in Bulawayo was a draw. Batting first at Queen's Sports Park, Zimbabwe scored 586 runs. Afghanistan also scored 699 runs by batting brilliantly. Zimbabwe's second innings could not be completed until the final day of the match, leading to a draw.
Two players from Afghanistan scored a double century and a single century in this match. Three players scored centuries from Zimbabwe. The match was not special for the bowlers, 7 bowlers from both teams spent more than 100 runs in the first innings.
Zimbabwe scored 586 runs Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to bat in Bulawayo on Thursday. Shaun Williams scored 154, Craig Irwin scored 104 and Brian Bennett scored 110 for the team. Ben Curran played an innings of 68 runs and T Cayetano played an innings of 46 runs. The team scored 586 runs in the first innings.
From Afghanistan, Allah Ghazanfar took 3 wickets in the first innings. Naveed Zardan, Zaheer Khan and Zia ur-Rehman got 2 wickets each. Azmatullah Omarzai had a breakthrough.
Shaun Williams scored 154 runs.
Double century by 2 players from Afghanistan Afghanistan also batted strongly in their first innings. Rahmat Shah scored 234 runs and captain Hashmatullah Shahidi scored 246 runs from the team. A record partnership of 364 runs was also recorded between the two for the third wicket. In the end, Hazratullah Zazai also played an innings of 113 runs and took the team's score to 699 runs.
Brian Bennett took 5 wickets and Shaun Williams took 2 wickets for Zimbabwe. Blessing Muzarabani, Trevor Gwandu and Newman Nyamahuri got 1 wicket each. 3 bowlers of the team scored 100+ runs.
Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi shared a partnership of 364 runs.
Zimbabwe lost 4 wickets in the second innings Afghanistan took a lead of 113 runs in the first innings. On the fifth day, Zimbabwe started the second innings. At the end of the day's play, the team scored 142 runs for the loss of 4 wickets, where they had a lead of 29 runs. At this moment the captains of both the teams shook hands and agreed to a draw.
For Zimbabwe, Shaun Williams scored 35, Craig Irvine 22, Ben Curran 41 and Joylord Gamby scored 24 runs. T Kayatano was dismissed for 5 runs and Dion Myers was dismissed for 4 runs. Zaheer Khan got 2 wickets and Ghazanfar got 1 wicket for Afghanistan. A batter was run out.
After scoring a century, Brian Bennett also took 5 wickets in the first innings.
Second Test from January 2 The second and final Test of the series between the two teams will begin two days later on January 2. This match will also be played in Bulawayo. Earlier, ODI and T20 series were also played between the two. Afghanistan won the T-20 series 2-1 and the ODI series 2-0. One match of the ODI series remained inconclusive.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
