He bagged his 10th wicket of the match to send back Tiripano five short of a maiden Test hundred
Lunch Zimbabwe 287 and 329 for 8 (Williams 137*, Tiripano 95, Rashid 6-127) lead Afghanistan 545 for 4 dec by 72 runs
For 70.4 overs, Sean Williams and Donald Tiripano had made Zimbabwe dream. Exactly 20 years after VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid had batted through an entire day’s play to turn a follow-on situation on its head, Williams and Tiripano were threatening to do something similar. They had batted through the entire post-tea session on day four, and they were within four minutes of batting through the entire first session of day five.
They had put on 187, and moved Zimbabwe from minus 116 for 7, effectively, to 71 for 7.
Then Tiripano, five runs away from a maiden Test hundred, ran into the Rashid Khan wrong’un. He’d seemed to pick Rashid out of the hand right through his innings, and had dealt with his threat magnificently even when he was getting the ball to scoot through low on a pitch with uncertain bounce.
The slowness of the pitch had helped Tiripano negotiate Rashid, though not without alarm, for 108 balls. But you’re never safe against him, not even when he’s starting his 56th over of the innings and his 93rd of the match. For once, Tiripano didn’t pick Rashid out of his hand, and the pace of his delivery negated the slowness of the pitch, zipping through to strike him plumb in front and punish him for playing back to a good-length ball.
With that ball, a spell seemed to have broken. It was Rashid’s 10th wicket of the match. At lunch, Zimbabwe were 329 for 8, effectively 71 for 8. Williams was still there, batting on 137, but he’ll now have to rely on Nos. 10 and 11 to extend Zimbabwe’s lead as far as possible. This match isn’t over yet, but Afghanistan will be a hugely relieved side when they consume their lunch.
More to follow…
Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo