Zimbabwe 504 and 164 for 3 (Taylor 82, Bennett 49*, Zia-ur-Rehman 2-65) lead Afghanistan 514 (Shah 173, Rahmanullah 113, Atal 105, Nyamhuri 5-82, Cremer 3-177) by 154 runs
The pair made Zimbabwe toil under the scorching Sharjah sun for almost three hours across the morning and afternoon sessions, adding 92 runs – the highest for the eighth wicket for Afghanistan. Shah made 173 off 347 balls, his second-highest Test score, while Zia contributed with a gutsy 15 off 99 balls as Afghanistan overhauled Zimbabwe’s first-innings 504 and took a slender lead of 10 runs.
The fourth day’s play in Sharjah panned out pretty similarly to the third as Afghanistan dominated the first session before Zimbabwe came back into the contest across the afternoon and evening sessions.
It started with Shah bringing up his century with a slash behind point off Newman Nyamhuri in the second over. The scoring rate, however, remained sluggish through the morning session as Shah and Zia frustrated the opposition bowlers to stretch their overnight stand into the afternoon session.
Only 63 runs were scored at 2.10 in the first session. Zimbabwe attacked whenever they could bowl at Zia. Blessing Muzarabani fired full into the tailender’s pads on four consecutive deliveries in an over but all the four appeals for lbw were turned down by the umpire. Zia was enticed with the loopy deliveries from the spinners and Bennett swarmed him with close-in catches whenever he took the strike, but Zia continued to defend resolutely.
As for Shah, he is already considered as Afghanistan’s best batter – he is the only player to score more than 1000 runs in the format from his country. He farmed the strike for most of the morning session, looking to rotate the strike in the last few balls each over. At the same time, he also picked up his deliveries to attack Zimbabwe’s spinners. With Graeme Cremer coming around the wicket to him to access the rough around his leg stump, Shah opened his stance to smoke the legspinner out of the stadium with the slog-sweep, which led the umpires to seek a replacement ball. He also skipped down the pitch the next over to thump Antum Naqvi for a boundary in back-to-back overs.
On a pitch which remained unresponsive, Zimbabwe’s only hope was the new ball, which arrived before drinks in the afternoon session. The introduction of Muzarabani with the new ball reaped rewards as he had Zia caught behind with a back-of-the-length ball. Encouraged by the breakthrough Bennett brough Nyamhuri into the attack from the other end.
Muzarabani continued to create chances as he induced Shah into a slash which was shelled at point by Craig Ervine and a leading edge off Mohammad Saleem landed just before the fielder at the first slip. However, the crucial wicket of the Afghanistan captain arrived right after drinks as Shah misjudged a flighted delivery from Cremer to be stumped.
Moments later Nyamhuri led his team off the field after hitting the top of Mohammad Saleem’s middle stump – a dismissal that brought him his maiden five-wicket haul.
After his heroics with the bat now it was time for Zia to make an impact with the ball. He sent Innocent Kaia back in just the fourth over with an arm ball that trapped him lbw. He then had Ben Curran caught at mid-on after tea, leaving Zimbabwe at 38 for 2.
Taylor then took charge of the innings as he swept and thumped anything in his slot down the ground. Even those which weren’t in his hitting arc were sent sailing over the fence, including the one which brought his half-century when he stepped out of the crease to caress Qais over his head for six.
More to follow…
Ahsan Iftikhar Nagi is a cricket journalist based in Lahore
