Afghanistan vs Zimbabwe 2021, 1st Test: Day 2 – All Round Zimbabwe End Their More Than Two-Year Wait For A Test Victory

Zimbabwe claimed their first Test victory since November 2018 after thrashing Afghanistan on just the second day of the opening game of the two-match Test series. While they won this Test match by 10 wickets, they are leading this series by the 1-0 margin with one match to go.

Starting the day on their overnight score of 133/5, Zimbabwe scored 250 runs in their first innings before losing their all wickets. Trailing by 119 runs, Afghanistan started their second innings of the match and they were again all out for just 135 runs. Zimbabwe chased down the fourth-innings target of 17 runs without losing any wicket.

Afghanistan vs Zimbabwe 2021, 1st Test: Day 2 – Sean Williams’ century secured 100+ lead for the Chevrons

In the second over of the day, Ibrahim Zadran dismissed the overnight batsman Ryan Burl for just 8 runs. However, the other overnight batsman and Zimbabwe captain Sean Williams controlled the innings very well and the wicket-keeper batsman Regis Chakabva provided very good support to him for the seventh wicket. Williams and Chakabva put the 75 runs partnership for the seventh wicket but the latter lost his wicket ahead of the lunch break as Zahir Khan took the wicket of Chakabva for 44 runs. Donald Tiripano (4) was another victim of Zahir Khan in that late moment of that session.

In the early second session, skipper Williams completed his third Test century. But soon after that, Amir Hamza ended that innings by picking up the last two wickets, including dismissing Williams for 105 runs off 174 balls (10 fours).

Amir Hamza became the second Afghanistan bowler to claim the 6-wicket haul in a Test innings (Rashid Khan 6/49) as he finished that innings with the bowling figures of 25-3-75-6.

Afghanistan vs Zimbabwe 2021, 1st Test: Day 2 – Chevrons were totally under control for the rest of the day

Afghanistan started their second innings by trailing 119 runs. But from the beginning of their second innings, Afghanistan were losing their wickets consistently as they had hardly any strong partnership. After falling down to 21/5, they had some late partnerships but those only helped them to avoid the innings defeat.

Opener Ibrahim Zadran scored 76 off 145 balls (10 fours) but there were no other solid contributions with the bat in that innings. The lower-order batsman Amir Hamza scored 21 not out while captain Asghar Afghan (14) was the only other batter in that innings to reach the double-digit mark.

Among the Zimbabwe bowlers, Donald Tiripano (3/23) and Victor Nyauchi (3/30) took three wickets each. Also, Blessing Muzarabani (2/14) got two wickets while captain Sean Williams (1/28) and Ryan Burl (1/13) picked up one wicket each.

Zimbabwe had the target of 17 runs in the fourth innings and the openers Prince Masvaure (5*) and Kevin Kasuza (11*) comfortably reached that tiny target without losing their wickets.

Brief Scores: Afghanistan – 131 (Afsar Zazai 37, Ibrahim Zadran 31; Blessing Muzarabani 4/48) & 135 (Ibrahim Zadran 76, Amir Hamza 21*; Donald Tiripano 3/23)

Zimbabwe – 250 (Sean Williams 105, Regis Chakabva 44; Amir Hamza 6/75) & 17/0 (Prince Masvaure 5*, Kevin Kasuza 11*)

Result – Zimbabwe won by 10 wickets.