Experienced spinner Rashid Khan celebrated his return to red-ball cricket after a gap of three years by claiming a career-best figures of 7/66 and helped Afghanistan fight back from a first-innings deficit to overcome Zimbabwe by 72 runs in the second Test to claim the series 1-0 at the Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo, on Monday.
With a 4-94 in the first innings, Player of the Match Khan ended up with a match haul of 11-160, leaving the Zimbabwe batters mesmerised by his leg-breaks and googlies.
After a high-scoring draw in the first Test at the same venue, with Zimbabwe posting 586 in their first innings and Afghanistan raising 699, things went south for the visitors as they were bowled out for 157 in 44.3 overs in their first innings with Newman Nyamhuri claiming 3-42 and Sikandar Raza with 3-30 being spinning the visitors in a web.
Afghanistan fought back to restrict Zimbabwe to 243 in their first innings with skipper Craig Ervine scoring a patient 75, Raza contributing 61 and Sean Williams making a 52-ball 49. Khan led Afghanistan's bowling efforts with 4-94 while Yamin Ahmadzai claimed 3-62.
Trailing by 86 runs, Afghanistan turned things around in their second innings. Rahmat Shah propelled their innings with a superb 139 and a brilliant 101 on debut by Ismat Alam. The visitors posted 363 runs in their second innings, setting Zimbabwe to score 278 to win the match and the series.
But Khan had other ideas as the wily spinner thwarted the home side's efforts with majestic figures of 7-66, running through the Zimbabwe innings like a hot knife through butter. Zimbabwe were bowled out for 205 runs in their second innings, losing the match by 72 runs. Skipper Ervine kept Zimbabwe's hopes alive with a fighting 53 but apart from a 38 each by Ben Curran and Raza, the rest of the batters failed to respond to the situation.
This is Afghanistan's fourth win in 11 Test matches they have played so far, with their previous wins coming in Dehradun, Chattogram, and Abu Dhabi.
Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afghanistan captain was elated by this comeback win and hailed Shah, Alam, and Khan for making it possible.
Congratulations to my entire team, I am very happy with the way they performed. The first day was difficult for us, coming back from that was not easy. The team showed the spirit and that showed we are mentally strong and hopefully this works in the future as well. Credit goes to the entire team, but especially to Shah, Alam, and Khan.
The way we played in this series was very good. It was a good learning for us moving forward and hopefully, we learn from this, work harder and I know the Afghanistan team has the talent to beat every side. We are good in every format, but we have to believe in ourselves and work hard for it.
Zimbabwe skipper Ervine said his team failed to take advantage of bowling out Afghanistan for a small total in the first innings.
There were definitely times in the game we could have capitalised properly, but we could not. We could have pushed that (first-innings lead) further. In certain areas, we could have done better, Afghanistan played much better (than us in this game). Going back to the first innings, getting them out for 150-odd, that was our opportunity to get above 300-350 and grow that lead. A lot of credit needs to go to Rahmat and Izmat and brought the team back, and then Rashid with a seven-for, that was outstanding.
