Afghanistan registered their second ever test match victory, when they beat Bangladesh by 224 runs at Chittagong on Monday.
Afghanistan started the day fifth of the match needing only 4 wickets to win to register their greatest ever test victory. The play delayed due to overnight rain, but after the covers were taken off, both Soumya Sarkar and Sakib Al Hasan came on to bat and ferociously encountered the spin duo Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi in the first 4 overs, until rain again stopped the play.
By the time game resumed, Sakib Al Hasan was dismissed by Zakir Khan on the very first bowl bowled giving first taste of the blood to Afghanis. Jubilant Afghanistan ran all over Bangaldesh, but Soumya Sarkar countered the attack and even smashed 4 consecutive boundaries in Zakhir Khan over. Both Soumya Sarkar and Mehidy Hasan tried to occupy the crease, but Mehidy was trapped in front on the stumps and Afghanistan was only 2 wickets away from historic victory.
In the Rashid Khan next over Nayeem Hasan was trapped LBW, it looked like the ball hit the bat before hitting the pad, but with no reviews remaining Bangladesh had to accept the umpire decision.
Afghanistan kept webbing the spin strategy around Bangladesh batters and even almost succeeded when Soumya Sarkar scored a single of the second ball of the over leaving Nayeem Hasan to face next four deliveries. It looked everything is over for Afghanistan, but Nayeem somehow batted through the over.
Only four overs were left and things looked gloomy for Afghanistan, but in the end Rashid Khan took the wicket of Soumya Sarkar giving a sharp catch to Ibrahim Zadran at short leg and the entire Afghanistan team erupted into celebrations.
It was one of the rarest occasions, when all the opposition wickets were taken by spinners. Skipper Rashid Khan ended with the figures of 21.4-6-49-6.
Here is how Twitter lauded Afghanistan historic victory over Bangaldesh.
Before this Test match #BANvAFG
"Beating Afghanistan will help Bangladesh cricket to start becoming normal" – Shakib Al Hasan— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) September 9, 2019
Just brilliant from Afghanistan. Had 18.3 overs to get 4 wickets with 2 batsmen and did it with overs to spare. Magnificent game for @rashidkhan_19 but how good was everyone else. Their great story continues.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 9, 2019
What a win don’t have words to describe the feeling . Afghanistan Zindabad 🇦🇫🇦🇫🇦🇫🇦🇫🇦🇫 pic.twitter.com/30J2JyPbWI
— Rashid Khan (@rashidkhan_19) September 9, 2019
No. of matches to get 2 Test wins:
3 Aus, Afghanistan
4 Eng
9 Pak
12 WI
13 SA
20 SL
30 Ind
31 Zim
55 NZ
60 Ban#AfgvBan— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) September 9, 2019
1995 – ACB formed
2001 – ICC Affiliate member
2009 – First ODI
2010 – First T20I
2013 – ICC Associate member
2017 – ICC Full member
2018 – Tie with India in the Asian Cup
2019 – Record their first Test away winWhat a cricketing journey for Afghanistan.
👏👏👏#BANvAFG pic.twitter.com/C4bwhpmt83
— bet365 (@bet365) September 9, 2019
afghanistan won't win the world test championship (since they aren't in it) but they just won test cricket! #BANvAFG
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) September 9, 2019
