Afghanistan reaches 90-3 against West Indies

Lucknow, India - Offspinner Rahkeem Cornwall of West Indies snared two wickets on a spinner friendly wicket as Afghanistan reached 90-3 in the first session of the one-off test on Wednesday.

Cornwall made most of the conditions to have Ibrahim Zadran (17) caught close to the wicket in his third over as the wicket started to look favorable for spinners from early on.

Cornwall, the 26-year-old Antiguan in only his second test, then had Ihsanullah (24) caught in the lone slip in the last over before lunch to finish the session with 2-29.

West Indies captain Jason Holder surprisingly opted to bowl after winning the toss and seamer Kemar Roach couldn’t hit the right lengths early on and spinners came on in the 9th over.

Zadran was shaping up well with his two brilliant cover driven boundaries before he went for an extravagant sweep shot against Cornwall and Holder snapped a brilliant one-handed diving catch to his left in the leg slip.

Cornwall could have the wicket of Javed Ahmadi (39), but wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich couldn’t hold onto a sharp leg side catch off the batsman’s gloves.

Ahmadi went on to hit a straight six and a four to Cornwall but paid the price of going for his shots and holed out at long off as Afghanistan lost two quick wickets before lunch.

Afghanistan is chasing a rare record by becoming the first nation to have won three of its first four test matches.

Afghanistan lost against India inside two days in its inaugural test, but then went on to beat Ireland and Bangladesh in the next two test matches.

Afghanistan awarded test debuts to batsman Nasir Jamal and seamer Amir Hamza and surprisingly left out allrounder Karim Janat, who played a vital role in Afghanistan’s win in the Twenty20 series against West indies with his brilliant all-round performance.

West Indies went with three spin options that include off spin of Roston Chase and Cornwall along with left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican.