Afghanistan bounce back with series-levelling win against Zimbabwe

Afghanistan 545 for 4 dec (Shahidi 200*, Afghan 164, Zadran 72, Jamal 55*) and 108 for 4 (Rahmat 58) beat Zimbabwe 287 (Raza 85, Masvaure 65*, Rashid 4-138, Rashid 3-73) and 266 for 7 (Williams 151*, Tiripano 95, Rashid 7-137) by six wickets

Abu Dhabi: Despite a stiff resistance from Sean Williams and Donald Tiripano, Afghanistan put up an impressive performance to win the second Test by six wickets and level the two-match series 1-1.

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 at 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 Khan then bagged his 11 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.