Bangalore: Afghanistan’s dreams of scripting a fairytale turned into nightmare as a ruthlessly professional India demolished them by an innings and 262 runs inside two days to win the historic one-off Test match at the M Chinnaswamy stadium here, Friday.
Afghanistan came across painfully short of experience for the longest format and were bowled out for 109 and 103 in both their innings respectively in pursuit of India’s first innings total of 474.
This was the first time that India won a Test match in two days while it has now happened for the 21st time in the 141-year-history of the traditional format. India, however, did become the first team to claim 20 wickets in a day.
Resuming the play at 347 for six, overnight batsmen Hardik Pandya (71, 94b, 10×4) and an unbeaten cameo by Umesh Yadav (26 n o, 21b, 2×4, 2×6) helped India score 127 runs in the first session as India were bowled out for 474. Yamin Ahmadzai (3/51) was the most successful bowler for the Afghans.
In reply, Afghanistan, who have some impressive accomplishments in the shortest format, lasted a total of 66.3 overs (27.5 overs in first innings and 38.4 overs in the second), posing serious questions over their readiness to cope up with demands of five-day cricket.
Batting was always going to be Afghanistan’s ‘Achilles heel’ as the inexperienced line-up simply didn’t have the technique or the temperament to face either quality pace bowling from Ishant Sharma (2/28 and 2/17) and Umesh Yadav (1/18 and 3/26) or the spin of Ravichandran Ashwin (4/27 and 1/32) and Ravindra Jadeja (2/18 and 4/17).
Every Afghan batsman seemed to be in limited-overs mode without any respect for an aspect called patience, which is an integral component of Test cricket.
Once the top-order was blown away by the Indian pace duo, Ashwin and Jadeja made short work of the middle and lower-order as the second day turned into a totally mismatch.
Having not played bowling of this calibre also contributed to Afghanistan’s dismal show. Afghan batsmen, sans Mohammad Nabi (24, 44b, 4×4) in the first innings and Hashmatullah Shahidi (36 n o, 88b, 6×4) in the second innings, simply came and went as it turned out to be a no-contest.
There were two minor milestones for India. Umesh Yadav completed 100 wickets in Test matches while Ashwin (316 wickets) surpassed Zaheer Khan (311 wickets) to become India’s fourth highest wicket-taker after Anil Kumble (619 wickets), Kapil Dev (434 wickets) and Harbhajan Singh (417 wickets).
Stats
24 – Wickets fell on the day, four of India and 20 of Afghanistan
21 – No of Test matches finished inside two days, first time for India
103 – Wickets taken by Umesh Yadav in 37 Tests, Rahmat Shah his 100th victim
316 – Wickets taken by Ravi Ashwin, fourth highest in Tests among Indians
20 – No. of wickets claimed by India on a single day, the 1st team to do so