Afghanistan bounce back with series-levelling win against Zimbabwe

Scorecard

Asghar Afghan and Hashmatullah Shahidi put Afghanistan in a strong position with their magnificent batting performances, while Rashid Khan added to Zimbabwe’s misery with 11 wickets in the match.

Although Afghanistan expected to wrap up the match on day four, a fighting partnership between Williams and Tiripano delayed their victory by a day.

Zimbabwe resumed play with Williams on 106 not out and Tiripano unbeaten on 63 with a lead of eight runs and three wickets in hand.

Williams and Tiripano continued from where they had left off yesterday and added another 63 runs to push Zimbabwe’s total past 329.

However, Rashid Khan finally managed to get a much-needed breakthrough for Afghanistan when he sent Tiripano packing just five short of what would have been his maiden Test century.

Captain Williams continued his efforts to increase Zimbabwe’s lead with Blessing Muzarabani and the pair stitched a 33-run partnership until latter fell victim to Amir Hamza.

Rashid then bagged his 11th wicket of the match and seventh of the innings by dismissing Victor Nyauchi, thus restricting Zimbabwe’s lead to 107 runs.

Afghanistan started their innings on the back-foot as Muzarabani drew first blood with a wicket in the first over of the innings. But, Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmat Shah quickly brought Afghanistan back on track with a well-worked partnership of 88 runs.

Zimbabwe picked up two wickets in quick succession but Afghanistan soon eased to comfortable victory with Rahmat Shah bringing up his half-century.

Hashmatullah Shahidi was adjudged as the Player of the Match for his double ton.