AFG vs ZIM, 1st Test — Day 3 Stumps: Afghanistan 402/7, Trail by 102, as Nyamhuri Answers Two Hundreds With Four Wickets

Afghanistan made 289 runs on Day 3, scored two hundreds and saved the follow-on before tea. And yet Zimbabwe went to bed the happier side. That is what six wickets in two sessions can do on a pitch where wickets have been hard to come by. Afghanistan are 402 for 7, 102 behind, and their captain is 94 not out at one end with the tail at the other.

For most of the morning it looked like a day Zimbabwe would simply have to endure. Sediqullah Atal and Rahmanullah resumed on an unbroken 99 and were still together at lunch, both on 103.

Atal pulled Muzarabani for four in the second over of the day, and Rahmanullah welcomed Antum Naqvi with a slog sweep that cleared the ground and landed on the road outside, holding up play while the staff went to find the ball. With the ball soft and the pitch giving little, they rotated the strike and punished anything loose. Zimbabwe tried everything: Muzarabani switched between over and around the wicket, and Nyamhuri even let the ball go from well behind the stumps. Atal was dropped for the fourth time in the innings when he chipped one back to Cremer, a hard chance to the right hand in the follow-through.

Then, within three balls late in the session, both men got there. Rahmanullah whipped a full ball from Muzarabani off his pads to midwicket to reach 102 off 156 balls, becoming only the second Afghanistan batter to make a Test hundred on debut and going past the country's previous best score on debut. Atal followed off 197 balls. Their stand passed 200, the highest second-wicket partnership in Afghanistan's Test history, and lunch came at 216 for 1.

The breakthroughs came from small lapses after the break. Atal prodded at a short, wide ball from Cremer without moving his feet and was caught behind for 105, ending the stand at 206. Rahmanullah then tapped one towards mid-on, set off, and Wessly Madhevere hit the stumps direct. He was run out for 113.

Rahmat Shah had started briskly, with a crunching cover drive off Naqvi and a four down the ground off Cremer, but he had to rein himself in. Brian Bennett brought Nyamhuri on and he struck at once, Hashmatullah Shahidi prodding a length ball that left him to gully. In his next over Shahidullah tickled one down the leg side to the keeper, and Afghanistan were 275 for 5. Bowling with the second new ball, Nyamhuri's spell in the second half of the session read five overs, two wickets, eight runs. Rahmat nearly went too, a leading edge that Brendan Taylor claimed at slip but which the third umpire ruled had been grounded. Tea came at 290 for 5.

Ikram Alikhil should have been stumped soon after tea, beaten by a Madhevere offbreak that drifted and spun past him as he came down the pitch, but the bounce seemed to surprise Tafadzwa Tsiga behind the stumps. Alikhil settled after that and made 40 with five fours, adding 65 with his captain, before he rocked back to another short, wide one from Cremer and lofted it to Ben Curran at cover. Qais Ahmad then played with real freedom, five fours in 27 off 39 balls, in a stand of 55. A late burst from Nyamhuri ended it, Qais edging one angled across him to the keeper. Rahmat, at the non-striker's end, could only stare at the pitch. Afghanistan closed on 402 for 7.

Afghanistan will be proud of the morning and annoyed by the afternoon. The second-wicket stand was everything a reply to 504 needs to be. But 220 for 1 became 275 for 5, and the first two of those wickets came from lapses in concentration rather than great deliveries. Saving the follow-on was the first task, and it was done. Drawing level now depends on Rahmat and three tailenders.

Zimbabwe kept going through a long day without much help, and that is to their credit. Cremer bowled 41 overs and his two wickets were the ones that opened the door. Nyamhuri was the find of the day. The dropped chances still hurt: Atal, put down four times, made 105.

Still very good for batting, especially once the ball is soft. The day's wickets came from loose shots, a run-out and good new-ball bowling rather than from anything the surface did on its own. The one sign of life was Madhevere's offbreak that beat Alikhil with drift, turn and bounce. If more of those come on Days 4 and 5, Zimbabwe's spinners will have something to work with.

113 off 188 balls, 12 fours and a six, in his first international innings. He is 23. He drove through the covers, swept with control, and played all around the wicket as if he had done this for years. His six off Naqvi went out of the ground and onto the road. Only one Afghanistan batter before him had made a hundred on Test debut, and no one had made more on debut. It took a direct hit from Madhevere to end it, which is a fitting kind of dismissal for an innings that no bowler managed to finish.

Our preview made Afghanistan slight favourites. Their batting has now done more than enough to stay in the game, but 102 behind with three wickets left, Zimbabwe still hold the first-innings advantage. The squad misses covered in the Day 1 report still stand.

Rahmat needs six more for his hundred, and Afghanistan need 102 to draw level. Zia-ur-Rehman, yet to face a ball, is with him. Watch how Rahmat handles the strike with the tail, and whether Nyamhuri, with a ball that is nearly 45 overs old, can finish it quickly. Whatever lead Zimbabwe take, they will then have to decide how fast to bat to give themselves enough time to bowl Afghanistan out again.