Afghanistan 157 (Rashid 25, Raza 3-30, Nyamhuri 3-42) and 363 (Rahmat 139, Alam 101, Muzarabani 6-95) beat Zimbabwe 243 (Ervine 75, Raza 61, Rashid 4-94) and 205 (Ervine 53, Rashid 7-66, Zia 2-44) by 72 runs
But even the short span of play on the fifth day was enough for plenty of drama. The day started with exactly what Afghanistan wanted: Rashid bowling to Zimbabwe’s No. 10 Richard Ngarava. Four balls into play, Afghanistan got exactly what they wanted – almost. Ngarava skied an attempted slice off Rashid, and the ball popped up behind the man at silly point. Hashmatullah Shahidi, placed at cover, moved to his right. Fareed Ahmad, at point, stepped to his left.
With his attention divided between the dipping ball and the approaching Fareed, Shahidi dropped Ngarava. Rashid couldn’t hold back an angry expression towards his captain, who had stretched both his hands out, only for the ball to never stick. Ngarava survived, but for hardly any longer.
Ngarava did play out the remaining two deliveries of the over to ensure Ervine had the strike for the next. Starting on his overnight score of 53, and being the last recognised batter, he had a spread-out field to play with. After turning down two singles, Ervine decided he should go for the third. He drove Yamin Ahmadzai towards deep extra cover, where the man was placed only about three-fourths of the way to the boundary.
Shahidullah collected the ball while chasing it forward, and fired a flat throw at the wicketkeeper. Perhaps not expecting Ervine to go for the run that early in the over, Ngarava was late to take off. But Ervine was well down the pitch by that time, and wicketkeeper Afsar Zazai whipped the bails off with Ngarava miles short.
Last man Blessing Muzarabani defended the next two deliveries and left the third one alone. Ervine again took strike for the next over, with Zimbabwe having yet to add to their overnight score. Rashid went short for the first two balls, but pitched it much fuller the third time. The ball landed just outside off, turned in, and struck Ervine in front as he missed an attempted sweep.
Rashid and his mates went up right away, even as umpire Ahsan Raza’s finger took its time to show up. But it eventually did, although the first impression was of the ball missing leg stump. However, there was no DRS to turn to, leaving the Afghanistan players jumping and celebrating.
It was a come-from-behind win fashioned by centuries from Rahmat Shah and debutant Ismat Alam in the second innings, which Afghanistan had started 86 runs in the arrears. Not to be left behind with the bat, Rashid even contributed what turned out to be crucial innings of 25 and 23.
As a result, Afghanistan took the two-match series 1-0 after a high-scoring draw in the first Test, and left Zimbabwe with a series win across each of the three formats.
Himanshu Agrawal is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
