NEW CHANDIGARH: India dominated Day 2 of the one-off Test against Afghanistan in Mullanpur, declaring a first innings total of 564-8 before reducing the visitors to 113-5 with decent bowling.
Resuming their innings, the hosts piled on the runs before declaring for 564 runs. Skipper Shubman Gill extended his overnight century from the front and scored 126 off 177 balls with 15 fours and a six.
Notable contributions came across the middle and lower order. Rishabh Pant continued his unbeaten half-century and scored 81 runs off 121 balls. Washington Sundar scored 54 runs with debutant Manav Sudhar, who added a valuable 28 runs.
Sundar finished with a fluent 52 not out and shared fruitful partnerships, including 30 with Mohammad Siraj and 24 with Kuldeep Yadav, before India declared.
Despite India’s batting dominance, Afghanistan’s Mohammad Saleem Safi produced a spirited bowling effort in testing conditions, returning excellent figures of 6/140. He accounted for four of the five wickets that fell on Day 2 before being declared.
In reply, Afghanistan’s first innings got off to a shaky start against India’s dynamic bowling attack. Openers Abdul Malik and Sedikullah Atal were dismissed on 16 and 17 respectively, Rahmanullah Gurbaz on 12 while Manav Sudhar and Prasidh Krishna fell early.
Captain Hashmatullah Shahidi struggled to stabilize the innings with 20 but was caught lbw as the visitors were under pressure at 98-4.
Rahmat Shah eventually scored an unbeaten 43, becoming the first Afghan batsman to reach 1,000 Test runs in the process.
For India, Prasith Krishna and Sudhar maintained tight control and continued to limit scoring opportunities. Sudhar struck again late in the day to claim his third wicket.
At the end of Day 2, Afghanistan were 113-5, still 451 runs behind and facing a tough challenge to avoid a tough follow-on situation.