ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2019

11 Afghanistan in 2018/19 InAfghanistan’s first-ever Test match at Bangalore in June 2018, India had provided the newcomers with a salutary warning of the challenges they will face if they are to consolidate their position at the top table. In 2018/19 there were signs that these challenges were beginning to be met, as attempts began to establish a clear pathway for players from junior cricket right through to the Test arena.  At Test level, the 2018/19 season included only a single match. It was Afghanistan’s first nominally ‘home’ Test, though security considerations meant that it had to be played outside their own country, at Dehra Dun in the Himalayan foothills north of Delhi. Their opponents were fellow new boys Ireland, in their own first Test away from home. A seven-wicket victory (scorecard on page 296) gave Afghanistan the distinction of being only the third side, after England and Pakistan, to win their second Test match after losing their first. After they had bowled Ireland out on the first day, and taken a first-innings lead of 142 on the second, their victory was never in doubt, despite last-wicket heroics in both Irish innings. Star bowler Rashid Khan recovered from his mauling at Bangalore to post his country’s first-ever Test five-for, while Rahmat Shah came within two runs of scoring their first Test century.  Afghanistan will face tougher challenges in the years ahead than an out-of-season Ireland. Nevertheless, the confidence given by that first win – and Afghanistan are a side that thrives on confidence – will surely help to overcome any doubts created at Bangalore as to their prospects at Test level.  Having said that, their greater strength still lies in the shorter formats of the game. This is especially the case in T20 Internationals, where they rank ahead of established Test sides West Indies and Bangladesh, and where they continue to have one or more players in the top ten of the rankings for batting, bowling (where Rashid Khan has retained his world number one spot), and all-round cricket.  But the longer formats are important to Afghanistan too, and both at domestic and international levels steps were taken to improve opportunities for promising players to develop their skills in these formats. At home this was demonstrated by the holding, first, of a two-day, non-first-class tournament to identify players of suitable quality to go forward into a new three-day, first-class competition known as the Mirwais Nika Provincial Tournament. This featured five provincial sides, with each team scheduled to include a mix of the top players from the two-day tournament, three established first-class cricketers, and one quick bowler produced by the Afghanistan Cricket Board’s dedicated project to identify the best of their aspiring fast bowlers. It may not always have worked out like this when the teams took the field, but the intention was good.  This new tournament, held in February and March, saw each of the five teams playing each other once, with the top two in the table then contesting a final. Unfortunately two of the ten scheduled matches fell victim to the weather, and only one of the remaining games produced a definite result. Even then the winners of that match, Khost, did not quite accumulate enough points to reach the four-day final, in which Kabul beat Kunduz on first innings after running up the competition’s highest innings total of 531.  Two weeks later, the four-dayAhmed ShahAbdali Tournament began, with the same six competing sides as had contested the second of the two iterations of this tournament in 2017/18. There was no repeat of the statistical fireworks of the 2017/18 tournaments, though the first-ever first-class hat-trick in Afghanistan – by Dastagir Khan for Boost – deserves a mention. Last season’s double- winners, Band-e-Amir, propped up the table in 2018/19, while the top four in the table were separated by only six points. The title went to Speen Ghar, whose three-day victory in their last match of the season proved decisive.