ZIM vs AFG 2024/25, Zimbabwe vs Afghanistan 1st Test, Day 3, Bulawayo Match Report, December 26 – 30, 2024

Almost exactly 100 years since Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe became the first pair to achieve it in Test cricket, the Afghanistan pair of Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi batted out a full day of a Test match without being dismissed. In the process, Rahmat became the holder of Afghanistan’s highest Test score (231*), Shahidi struck his second Test ton (141*), and the pair comfortably broke the record for Afghanistan’s best Test partnership (361). All in all, their addition of 330 runs across 95 overs on the third day has taken Afghanistan to 425 for 2, now only 161 behind Zimbabwe’s 586.

Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo ranks among one of the best places to bat among Test venues, and Zimbabwe’s first-innings score across the first two days suggested a placid third-day surface, which it was, barring the occasional ball that stayed low.