Mullanpur: Indian spinners benefitted from some atrocious shot selection by the Afghanistan batters as the visitors were reduced to 98 for five at tea after following-on on day three of the one-off Test here Monday.
After debutant Manav Suthar’s 6 for 33 in the first innings led to a meagre 152 all out, Afghanistan batters played too many strokes that brought about their downfall in the second innings.
Washington Sundar (3/30 in 8 overs) has been the pick of the bowlers in the second innings so far while the out of sorts Kuldeep Yadav (1/24) would also feel relieved to see his name in the wickets column.
Mohammed Siraj (1/11) also stretched himself to provide the opening breakthrough.
Left-handed opener Sediqullah Atal, who was signed by Delhi Capitals in 2026, was dismissed off the last ball before tea as he tried to hit Washington against the turn and offered a simple catch to Mohammed Siraj at backward point.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (24) wanted to hit his way out of the trouble before Shubman Gill placed Siraj at the long-on boundary asking Kuldeep to lure him for an aerial shot. The move paid off immediately as Gurbaz was holed out at long-on.
A similar thing happened with first innings half centurion Rahmat Shah (13), who wanted to loft Washington over mid-off but couldn’t clear the man of the moment Suthar.
It was a pity that barely 500 odd people were present in the stands on Monday morning when country’s newest spin bowling star completed a rare milestone, becoming the 10th Indian to take five wicket-haul on debut.
He was also the seventh spinner to reach the landmark in his maiden Test.
His final first innings figures read 22-10-33-6 which also showed the kind of relentless pressure he put on inexperienced Afghan batters, none of whom looked comfortable while trying to defend him.
For the visitors, veteran Rahmat Shah (60 off 135 balls) was the only batter to offer some resistance before he became Suthar’s fifth victim, falling all over while trying to play a slog sweep.
Rahmat and injured Sharafuddin Ashraf (11) batted for almost 11 overs after Prasidh Krishna (3/37 in 11 overs) had Azmatullah Omarzai (0) played on with a 140 kmph delivery.
Ashraf, who was in considerable pain with what seemed like a hamstring injury, hobbled and at times Rahmat had to refuse easy singles which could have otherwise kept the scoreboard ticking.
Ashraf became Suthar’s fourth victim when he drew the batter forward and the delivery turned enough to kiss the outside edge into Rishabh Pant’s gloves.
Rahmat, who on the second day, became the first Afghan batter to complete 1000 Test runs, hit nine boundaries apart from a six but hardly looked comfortable against Suthar, who would repeatedly land the ball on the same spot over after over.
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