After Ireland’s performance in their inaugural Test against Pakistan, it was expected that another newly-added team in the format, Afghanistan would also have a lot to offer, especially due to the kind of performances they have been putting up lately. However, Afghanistan failed to meet the expectations as India crushed the hapless side by an innings and 262 runs at Bengaluru.

With Virat Kohli absent for hosts, the Indian team was led by another India batsman, Ajinkya Rahane.

Two centuries from the India openers, Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan, had set the stage for India’s big score in the first innings. Lokesh Rahul and Hardik Pandya also added two half-centuries to make things hard for Afghanistan.

Yamin Ahmadzai took three wickets as India registered a score of 474/10. The rest of the Afghan bowlers weren't very effective and got hit for more than four runs an over.

The Indian bowling attack then teamed up greatly to bundle the opponents out for 109 runs and help India enforce follow-on. The sublime bowling unit once again bowled Afghanistan out, and this time for 103 runs, on the same day to seal victory in the one-off Test match.

Ravichandran Ashwin bagged a total of six wickets in the match and Ravindra Jadeja also got five wickets to his name while their pacers, Umed Yadav and Ishant Sharma, scalped four wickets each.

Although the Indian bowling line-up line-up didn’t allow any of the Afghan batters achieve the rare feat of clubbing a century at a country’s debut Test, the match has certainly entered the record books because of the poor performance from the men led by Asghar Stanikzai.

India had to bowl only 66.3 overs – the fewest in a winning Test for the team – to scalp 20 wickets of the Afghanistan  team and it is also the biggest win for India in this format. This match has also recorded the most wickets (24) in a day’s play since 1902.

While the Afghan spin attack – that comprises the likes of Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman – failed to prevent the opponents from posting a mammoth total, Indian spinners had no difficulty in strangling Afghanistan’s batting line-up.

This clash has left a bad taste in the newly-promoted team’s mouth as their much-hyped T20 bowlers will now have to think about the tough challenge that awaits them in the longest format of international cricket.

 

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