Even though debutant Ziaur Rahman bowled brilliantly, Zimbabwe gained a big lead thanks to Ben Curran’s innings.
Curran built on his previous day’s fifty to deliver his first Test century, while Sikandar Raza’s fifty helped Zimbabwe amass a commanding lead. Amid the hosts’ dominance, Ziaur made a memorable mark with record-breaking bowling.
In the one-off Test against Afghanistan in Harare, Zimbabwe’s first innings ended at 359. After bowling out the visitors for 127 in their first innings, Zimbabwe secured a 232-run lead. Afghanistan ended day two at 34/1, still trailing by 198 runs.
In his eighth Test, Ben Curran, brother of English cricketers Tom and Sam Curran, reached three figures for the first time. He scored 121 off 256 balls with 15 fours. Sikandar Raza added 65 runs with seven fours.
Debutant pacer Ziaur took 7 wickets for 97 runs, marking the best bowling figures by an Afghan player on debut in Test cricket. Only two other Afghan players had previously taken five wickets on debut: Amir Hamza (5/74) and Nijat Masood (5/79). Against Zimbabwe, this was the best debut performance, surpassing English pacer Richard Johnson’s 6/33.
Zimbabwe lost two wickets in the opening hour of the new day. Brendan Taylor fell for 32, adding 14 to the previous day’s 18, while Craig Ervine was dismissed cheaply by Ismat Alam.
Curran and Raza steadied the innings with a 214-run partnership, taking Zimbabwe from 130/2 at the start of the day to a strong position by the end of the first session. Raza reached his fifty off 67 balls, while Curran’s century came off 217 balls.
Raza fell soon after, trapped LBW by Ismat Alam, but Zimbabwe had already crossed 300. Ziaur completed his five-wicket haul by dismissing Tafadzwa Siga and Richard Ngara in consecutive deliveries. He then bowled Blessing Muzarabani and trapped Tanaka Chivanga LBW to end Zimbabwe’s innings. Brad Evans remained unbeaten on 35 off 1 six and 4 fours.
Chasing a big deficit in their second innings, Afghanistan struggled. Abdul Malik couldn’t provide a strong start, but Ibrahim Zadran (25 off 3 fours) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (7*) steadied the innings to prevent further collapse.
Summary Score
- Afghanistan 1st Innings: 127
- Zimbabwe 1st Innings: 103 overs, 359 (Curran 121, Taylor 32, Ervine 5, Raza 65, Siga 17, Evans 35*, Ngara 0, Muzarabani 5, Chivanga 5; Yamin 24-7-62-0, Ziaur 32-4-97-7, Ashraf 17-4-65-1, Ismat 15-2-51-2, Khalil 9-0-54-0, Shahidi 6-0-14-0)
- Afghanistan 2nd Innings: 12 overs, 34/1 (Ibrahim 25, Malik 2, Gurbaz 7*; Muzarabani 5-0-19-0, Ngara 4-1-9-1, Evans 2-0-3-0, Raza 1-0-3-0)
