Dominant India turn on the screws as Manav Suthar takes three wickets to overwhelm Afghanistan batters
India – 564/8 (KL Rahul 100, Shubman Gill 126, Rishabh Pant 81, Sai Sudharsan 81, Mohammad Saleem 140/6); Afghanistan – 113/5 (Rahmat Shah 43*, Manav Suthar 21/3)
The second day of the test match between India and Afghanistan in New Chandigarh followed along expected lines as the Indian batting order pressed home the advantage to set up a massive first-innings score of 564/8 declared and then, weaving a web of spin around the Afghanistan batsmen, as they struggled to come to terms with the pitch and overall superior Indian bowling lineup.
The morning started with Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant resuming their innings and looking to continue on the previous day’s good work. Afghanistan immediately took the new ball and found some movement in the pitch. Looking to restrict India to a manageable total, they could have easily picked up two early wickets.
Azmatullah Omarzai managed to bring one back sharply to hit the top of the front pad of Gill just in front of the off stump, but the umpire did not rule it out. The Afghanistan fielders continued discussing if they should take the only remaining review, and the timer ran out. The replay showed the ball to be hitting flush at the top of the leg stump.
Same over, next ball, Omarzai induced a nick from Pant to be caught by the keeper, but inexplicably, Afghanistan again did not go for the review. Replays showed a clear spike of the ball hitting the edge of the bat. Two early wickets with the new ball, and the lower middle order could have been put under pressure, but the horse had bolted by then.
To their credit, the Afghanistan bowlers did not wilt after the near misses, and bowled manfully. Gill was looking in ominous form and had just played his trademark straight drive and pull for a couple of boundaries, when Mohammad Saleem got him to nick outside his off stump to be caught by the wicketkeeper. Gill had to go back for a wonderful 126 off 177 balls.
Dhruv Jurel started with a confident pull for a boundary first ball off Saleem and was aggressive throughout. A couple of delectable cut shots off the pacers for boundaries highlighted his good form. But he badly misjudged a leave to an incoming delivery from Saleem, and saw his off stump knocked back. He had scored 19 in 20 balls. Pant was generally subdued in his innings, occasionally breaking free by stepping out and playing an aggressive shot. He finally seemed to lose patience as he sliced one high to long off, trying to clear the fielder against offspinner Hashmatullah Shahidi. Not a typical Pant innings; his 81 was an important innings for the young team.
Washington Sundar, who started nervily with an edge just falling short of the keeper, started to find his timing and targeted the deep midwicket and square leg boundaries. Batting with the tail, he used the long handle effectively and reached his 50 off 65 balls and remained unbeaten at the end.
Manav Suthar came in and showed his utility as a lower-order batsman with a few lusty blows as he took a liking to the spinners. He finally fell fishing outside off stump to the indomitable Saleem for a useful 28 in 41 balls. He was Saleem’s fifth wicket of the match.
This was followed by arguably the most entertaining period of the day, as Siraj came in and started batting as if he was batting the last couple of overs of an IPL match. A full toss was flicked away, not very elegantly, one must say, towards the deep midwicket boundary. Spinner Nangeyalia Kharote was then absolutely smoked over deep midwicket with a slog sweep for six, and the next ball was thumped over mid-on for a boundary.
Gaining confidence, he started playing like a proper batsman as he rocked back to cut one towards deep point for another boundary. The best shot was next over, as he arched back to a short ball from Saleem, guiding it confidently towards the deep backward point boundary. For a second there, it looked as if KL Rahul was batting. But as expected, it was too good to last as he soon went for an ungainly slog, to see his stumps disturbed. With his batting credentials considerably enhanced, Siraj walked back scoring 22 in 12 balls.
Saleem was the pick of the bowlers. After bowling the whole of the previous day, he came in hard and often induced false strokes from the batsmen. His pace was right up in the high 130s or 140s throughout the day. Earlier in the day, an inside edge off Pant could have easily been played on to the stumps, instead of going for a boundary behind the keeper. He also regularly had the batsmen playing and missing or edging just short to his deliveries outside off stump. His 140/6 in 27 overs was just reward for some lovely pace bowling.
Gill then declared at 564/4, with 40 overs remaining in the day. The Afghanistan openers had their task cut out to make a match of it. Both Sediqullah Atal and Abdul Malik did well to survive the opening pace attack despite some anxious moments. But it was spin that was going to play a major part in this match.
Suthar was handed the ball in the sixth over, and he immediately stuck. Some sharp spin in the first few balls seemed to have spooked Malik, and a desperate sweep resulted in a top edge, which was gobbled safely by Siraj after some initial miscommunication with Rahul near backward square leg. At the other end, Prasidh, who was bowling much fuller than his usual shorter lengths, castled the left-handed Sediqullah with a delivery slightly seaming in.
Suthar was bowling a tight line and length and regularly troubled the batsmen. His off and middle stump line to the right-handed batsmen was almost unhittable as he choked the run scoring from one end, while also picking up wickets. Batsmen had no other choice but to try blocking him or hit out with a risky shot. Gurbaz, who had managed to sweep him for a six earlier, succumbed to the pressure created as he tried to defend a middle stump line delivery, to offer a low catch to slip, where Sudharsan held on to a smart catch. Suthar’s figures at this point read 7.2 overs-8 runs-2 wickets. Afghanistan was 62/3, and things did not look very bright for them.
Kuldeep was not as tight, but could have been amongst the wickets as he managed to induce a few edges that fell wide of the slip fielders. One such edge off Hashmatullah Shahidi was dropped by Rahul in his penultimate ball of the day, and Kuldeep remained wicketless for the day. While he did bowl some decent deliveries, they were also interlaced with some not-so-great ones, and his figures for the day were 29/0 in 7 overs.
Siraj was soon brought in at Kuldeep’s end, and he started with a loosener, but as his spell continued, his bowling improved; however, he could not get the elusive wicket. Prasidh then came in and struck immediately with his second ball of the spell as he had Hashmatullah plumb in front of the stumps. Hashmatullah, who had reviewed and survived a close LBW shout off Washington, reviewed again, but had to go back this time.
Afghanistan was 98/4 and would have been hoping to get to the end of the day without further damage, but Suthar came back to take his third wicket of the day, as Afsar Zazai tried to work a short leg-side delivery and somehow managed to get a top edge back to the bowler. It wasn’t a great delivery, and neither was the shot, but Suthar had bowled brilliantly throughout the day and deserved all of his wickets.
Rahmat Shah was the pick of the batsmen as he remained unbeaten on 43 and grew in confidence as the innings progressed. Afghanistan ended the day on 113/5. They bowled well in patches, and with some luck, could have had India in a spot of bother. Their batting, however, was too inexperienced in this format and never looked like putting the Indian bowlers under pressure. The talent is obviously there, but the players need more Test matches to react suitably to the match situations.