Asghar Afghan basks in historic day for Afghanistan cricket

By CricketCountry Staff Updated: Mar 18, 2019, 1:34 PM IST

Afghanistan on Monday achieved their first victory in Test cricket with seven-wicket win over Ireland in Dehradun, in their second match in the format, Set a target of 147 after bowling out Ireland for 288 on day four, Afghanistan won before lunch on Monday with fifties to Rahmat Shah and Ihsanullah in partnership of 139 the focal point. (SCORECARD: AFGHANISTAN vs IRELAND) Afghanistan skipper Asghar Afghan cut a proud figure after the win.

"Happy. It's a historic day for Afghanistan, for our team and our people," he said. "We have been playing for a while, we have been playing first-class cricket, so we have that composure. The bowlers were very good, Rashid [Khan], Yamin [Ahmedzai]. Now we're going to South Africa for World Cup preparation. We will try out best to play good cricket." (READ: Rahmat Shah, Ihsanullah steer Afghanistan to first Test victory)

The opener Rahmat was adjudged Man of the Match for scores of 98 and 76. In Afghanistan's first innings, Rahmat was out for 98 when he dragged the ball onto his stumps and on day four, he fell for 76 when he charged out at left-arm spinner James Cameron-Dow and was stumped with three runs needed for victory.

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Rahmat Shah scored his second fifty of the match to carry Afghanistan to victory. © AFP[/caption]

"First of all I'd like to congratulate the country for this win," he said. "There was a difference in the pitches - the ODI wickets was suitable for spin, this was better for batting. We played session by session and tried to win the match that way. I would like to give credit to the bowlers, they played really well."

Ireland captain William Porterfield rued a poor first innings as the reason for defeat. "It was obviously going to be a tough ask defending 150. It was the first innings where it went wrong for us," he said. "At the time, winning the toss was big, Any multi-day game, we had to capitalise in the first innings. If we'd done how we'd done in the second innings then, it could have been a completely different game. But credit to Afghanistan, they outplayed us."

After taking their debut Test against Pakistan last summer into the fifth day at Malahide - rain washed out a whole day - Porterfield took some positives from this match in Dehradun five players were given their maiden Test caps.

"We had a few glimpses. It's only our second game, quite a few lads making their debuts," he said. "But you want the lads to kick on and make a big contribution. And once Afghanistan got past us in the first innings, it was always going to be hard. Long tour, we came in from Oman, but playing a Test match, you're never tired."

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