While Afghanistan begins their Test cricket journey on Thursday morning at Bengaluru, Mohammad Shahzad gets a beautiful gesture from the Bengaluru crowd.
Thursday was the historic day when Afghanistan began the Test match as the 12th Test team in the cricket history. Playing their first Test in history, Indian captain Ajinkya Rahane decided to bat first at Bengaluru pitch after winning the toss.
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While 24-year-old Afsar Zazai played the wicket-keeping role, Mohammad Shahzad had to spend the day as a normal fielder. From the very beginning, India dominated over the Afghan bowlers, but the Bengaluru crowd had the special feeling for Mohammad Shahzad as they cheering up for the 30-year-old.
It started massively in 20th over, when Shahzad grabbed a catch with the diving effort at the first slip. While it was the spectacular effort to dismiss the Indian attacking batsman Shikhar Dhawan, the review showed the ball didn’t contact with the bat as that effort went in vain. However, the crowd appreciated Shahzad’s effort heartily as the chant got louder.
Shahzad didn’t disappoint the crowd as he put hard efforts on the field during the whole day when he had even minimum chances. Later, when he was fielded near the boundary rope, the crowd had loud cheers for that man.
Though the Indian top-order batsmen dominated the day and the crowd provided enough cheer for them, Shahzad one was the louder which the Afghan sensation enjoyed very well. When the moment got silent for little, Shahzad raised his arms and chants restarted.
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Coming to the match, Afghanistan fought back in the final session after Indian top-order batsmen dominated them in first two sessions. Opener Dhawan played a furious knock as he completed the century before the lunch break. The left-handed batsman became the first Indian to score a Test hundred before the lunch break on day 1. He scored 107 runs off 96 balls while another Murali Vijay also hit a ton with 105 runs knock.
No.3 batsman KL Rahul scored 54 runs while Cheteshwar Pujara was dismissed for 35 runs. At the late stage, India lost their wickets regularly as they went down to 334/6 from 280/1. At the end of the day, India was on 347/6.
Afghan right-arm Yamin Ahmadzai has taken most wickets in the innings with the bowling figure of 13-6-32-2. The 25-year-old delivered the first ball for Afghanistan in their Test cricket history as well as he was also Afghanistan’s first Test wicket-taker.
