West Indies crush Afghanistan by 9 wickets

West Indies handed Afghanistan a crushing 9-wicket defeat within three days in the one-off cricket Test.

Resuming Friday on 109-7 with a lead of only 19 runs, Afghanistan was bowled out for 120 in its second innings within 30 minutes on the third morning.

Captain Jason Holder (3-20) polished off the Afghanistan tail as he got the outside edges of Rashid Khan and Afsar Zazai’s bats and bowled Yamin Ahmadzai.

The West Indies hurried to 33-1 with John Campbell remaining unbeaten on 19 when he smashed left-arm spinner Amir Hamza over mid-off for a winning boundary.

The only blot in an otherwise a comprehensive win for West Indies was the form of Kraigg Brathwaite, who fell for eight runs to Hamza to continue a barren run in the Test format.

Really important win, we had a tough series against India (and it) was important to finish the year well, Holder said. Credit to the boys, they stuck together well. (It was) very pleasing to see new guys come in and take the opportunity.

Shamarh (Brooks) did that. He scored a 50 in the last innings and followed it with a 100 here, it was full of class and then Rahkeem (Cornwall) getting seven in the first innings, in just his second test, is amazing.

Afghanistan went into the match aiming to be the first country to win three of its first four test matches. Afghanistan lost to India inside two days in its inaugural test, but then beat Ireland and Bangladesh.

This one was no real contest, though, and Afghanistan is 2-2 since being elevated to the elite Test cricket ranks.

"I think, what I've seen, we've been struggling in the longer formats, especially in batting and that’s the area we need to improve, Afghanistan captain Rashid said. We want more test matches, the more we play Tests and ODIs, the better it is. Just one Test per year isn't good enough.

Off-spinner Cornwall was the architect of West Indies’ big win on a turning wicket in this northern Indian city with a match haul of 10-121.

Cornwall ran through the top order twice, returning figures of 7-75 and 3-46 that restricted Afghanistan to paltry innings totals of 187 and 120.

Brooks then notched his maiden Test hundred as West Indies replied with 277 for a first-innings lead of 90.

Both teams had earlier split the white-ball series also played at the same venue. West Indies swept Afghanistan 3-0 in ODI series before Afghanistan won the Twenty20 series 2-1 after losing the first match.

 

Dhaka/Mukul