Afghanistan v Zimbabwe, 1st Test, Abu Dhabi, 2-6 March, 2021

I'm really looking forward to this one. Will Foxy be showing it?

It will be interesting to see if Rashid Khan plays. He is in doubt after picking up a finger injury in the PSL.

A number of Zimbabwe's better players will be missing due to illness or injury.

WideWally wrote:I'm really looking forward to this one. Will Foxy be showing it?

It will be interesting to see if Rashid Khan plays. He is in doubt after picking up a finger injury in the PSL.

A number of Zimbabwe's better players will be missing due to illness or injury.

Was'nt aware Zimbabwe had any 'better players'

Big Dog wrote:

WideWally wrote:I'm really looking forward to this one. Will Foxy be showing it?

It will be interesting to see if Rashid Khan plays. He is in doubt after picking up a finger injury in the PSL.

A number of Zimbabwe's better players will be missing due to illness or injury.

Was'nt aware Zimbabwe had any 'better players'

Andy Flower, Heath Streak and Tatenda Taibu

Anyway, a genuine Test cricket El Crapico, will be interesting to see how it goes. Much needed given the only posts in here this week have been on plastic rugby and Aussie politics... oh yeah, there’s the fourth match of the Beach Cricket World Series this week as well. Not sure if it’s at Blackpool, Scarborough or Goa...

Big Dog wrote:

WideWally wrote:I'm really looking forward to this one. Will Foxy be showing it?

It will be interesting to see if Rashid Khan plays. He is in doubt after picking up a finger injury in the PSL.

A number of Zimbabwe's better players will be missing due to illness or injury.

Was'nt aware Zimbabwe had any 'better players'

Brendan Taylor .. 2055 test runs @ 35.43
Craig Ervine .. 1208 runs @ 35.52
Peter Moor .. 533 runs @ 35.53
Tendai Chatara .. 24 test wkts @ 27,62
Kyle Jarvis .. 46 wkts @ 29.43

All either not touring or likely to miss the first test. Their averages compare quite well with a number of recent Australian test players.

Taylor and Ervine can’t be the right side of 40, surely?

They’re both 35, it appears. They do start them young there, Taylor made his Test debut at 18. In the case of Ervine I think I was thinking of his older brother, who played in the pre-rebellion era (but is still only 38 himself).

Afghanistan win the toss & bat. The debutant, Abdul Malik, out to the first ball of the match bowled by Blessing Muzarabani. Blessing is about 10 foot tall. And now he also has the wicket of Rahmat Shah caught behind for 6.

Afghanistan 2/8

Ghanies 5/85. Not an auspicious start to the game .

Shame that Rashid wasn't fit for this match.

Ghanis all out 131.

Shaky start for the Frames with the bat, but they recover to overtake the Hounds’ total with 5 wickets in hand.

I missed all of the excitement. A big storm hit WideWallyWorld & we lost power for 9 hours.

Blessing is head & shoulders above all his teammates.

Zimbabwe all out for 250, a lead of 119.

Sean Williams 105
Amir Hamza 6/75

Blessing was 12 not out

Pair on debut for Abdul Malik.

Afghanistan 1/6

Afghanistan 4/21

Oh dear. Poor Ghanis look to be plummeting to an innings loss.

Dunno who Hamish is but on the Cricinfo commentary, he pointed out "Well, Afghanistan has avoided it's place in the history books by extending this test to be longer than IND v ENG".

Zimbabwe’s bowlers aren’t quite Ashwin, Axar, Leach and Root though

Afghanistan avoid the innings defeat. They are 7/121 with Ibrahim Zadran 72 not out.

Yikes, another 2 day Test.

They’re like London buses... the last year with two such completed matches was 2005 (both Zimbabwe defeats) and before that it was 1912.

The only year with three two-day Tests was 1888. Over to you again, England and India...

Also, there have now been as many two-day completed Tests in the 21st century as there were in the 20th (counting 2000 as part of the 20th!)

beamer wrote:Also, there have now been as many two-day completed Tests in the 21st century as there were in the 20th (counting 2000 as part of the 20th!)

wow.

That is stunning.

horace wrote:

beamer wrote:Also, there have now been as many two-day completed Tests in the 21st century as there were in the 20th (counting 2000 as part of the 20th!)

wow.

That is stunning.

There were none at all between 1946 and 2000.

Afghanis playing Test cricket in Dubai don't get rolled in under two days, but Afghanis playing in Abu Dhabi do.