(ESPN Cricinfo) – It had taken Zimbabwe 197 overs and over two days to take ten Afghanistan wickets in the opening Test.
A few days later, at the same venue, Zimbabwe required just 44.3 overs and less than two sessions to bowl Afghanistan out for 157 and take early control of the second Test in Bulawayo.
Newman Nyamhuri and Sikandar Raza picked three wickets apiece while Blessing Muzarabani got two as none of the Afghanistan batters managed to build on starts. In reply, the Zimbabwe openers Ben Curran and Joylord Gumbie had a tricky three overs to face, which they eventually survived.
The conditions were very different at the start of the opening day, with persistent rain greeting the two teams, and the toss delayed by close to four hours.
When the conditions improved, Craig Ervine had no hesitation in bowling first on what his opposite number Hashmatullah Shahidi described as a “spicy pitch”. Zimbabwe made two changes to their playing XI from the first Test, bringing in Richard Ngarava and Raza, while Afghanistan made five changes to their side. That included them handing Test debuts to Fareed Ahmad, Riaz Hassan, and Ismat Alam. The Bulawayo pitch had a green tinge to it, but Muzarabani and Ngarava failed to extract much movement, largely due to them being on the shorter side. The Afghanistan openers Abdul Malik and Riaz largely looked unhurried and managed just 25 runs in the first ten overs. But a moment of brilliance in the field gave the hosts the opening. Riaz pushed a full delivery from Ngarava to the right of point and set off for a single, only to be sent back by Malik quite late. Riaz, who was almost halfway down the pitch, scurried back, but Bennett sprinted to his right, picked up the ball with one hand, and in one swift motion smashed the stumps at the striker’s end to catch the batter short.
In the next over, Nyamhuri got a short-of-a-length ball to rear up sharply, thus catching Malik’s gloves through to the wicketkeeper.
Shahidi and Rahmat Shah, who had stitched a record stand in the opening Test, then looked to arrest the slide. Shahidi began with a fierce cut off Muzarabani over backward point while Rahmat also got off the mark with a four, albeit a streaky one past the wicketkeeper’s left.
Rahmat then struck two more fours off Muzarabani but got a reprieve when he got a thick outside edge off Ngarava to Dion Myers, who spilt a relatively comfortable catch at gully. Thus, Shahidi and Rahmat moved to lunch unbeaten. But it did not take Zimbabwe long to strike after the break, with 18-year-old Nyamhuri once again getting into the act by squaring Shahidi up and trapping him bang in front of the stumps for 13. Afsar Zazai, another centurion from the first Test, then came in and immediately found his bearings. But it was Raza’s introduction into the attack that brought about Afghanistan’s downfall. He varied his pace brilliantly, bowled wicket-to-wicket lines, and had both Rahmat and Zazai second-guessing. Nyamhuri also stuck to a plan and induced multiple outside edges before Raza orchestrated a collapse. Rahmat, unable to get Raza away, tried to unsettle him by trying a cheeky lap sweep. But Raza fired the ball in on middle, and Rahmat missed it to see his leg stump pegged back. Ngarava then got rid of Zazai with a snorter before Raza cleaned debutant Alam up with a yorker as Afghanistan slipped from 81 for 3 to 84 for 6 in the space of ten balls.
Rashid Khan unfurled a number of strokes as soon as he walked in by spanking Raza for three back-to-back cover drives. Shahidullah also got his first boundary away via a wristy flick. Muzarabani, who was wayward all day, finally got the ball to land on a channel outside off and induced a thin edge off Shahidullah’s blade through to the wicketkeeper. Rashid then failed to keep a short and wide delivery off Muzarabani down, with deep point taking an easy catch.
When Raza cleaned Yamin Ahmadzai up for his third wicket, the end was nigh for the visitors. But Zia-ur-Rehman and Fareed added a run-a-ball 27 for the final wicket, with debutant Fareed smashing a four and a six in his 19-ball 17 to take Afghanistan past 150.
The Zimbabwe openers survived a tricky 20-minute burst from Afghanistan and will want to wipe off the deficit early on day two. Rain and a wet outfield allowed only 47.3 overs to be bowled on the opening day, but the Test has already moved on at a rapid pace.
