Twitter Reactions: Afghanistan on the top despite the collapse later in the day

Afghanistan have extended its first innings lead a great deal on day-2. Carrying on their batting with an overnight score of 90/2, the middle-order applied itself beautifully. Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, and skipper Asghar Afghan played useful knocks for the home team.

Even though there was a small collapse of sorts towards the end of their innings, the side would have contended with its performance. Ireland did reasonably well in the tricky phase of the day towards the end. They lost one wicket and still trail the hosts’ score by 120 runs.

Rahmat Shah misses out on becoming the first Afghan batsman with a Test ton

Both Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi continued batting from where they left off on day-1. From 90/2, they added another 108 runs together on the day. The left-handed Shahidi was the first to walk back to the pavilion after Andy McBrine dismissed him for 61 runs.

Soon, Rahmat was also bowled by Tim Murtagh when he was on 98. Thus, the batsman missed out on being the first Afghan batsman to score a century in Test cricket. The lower middle-order and the tail didn’t live up to the expectations. Mohammad Nabi was dismissed for a duck. Ikram Ali Khil got out for 7 runs while Rashid Khan got back into the hut after scoring 10 runs.

Skipper Asghar Afghan though battled it out at one end. He scored 67 runs which came at a fair clip and was the 9th wicket to fall. The hosts ultimately bundled out for 314 runs after taking a first innings lead of 142 runs. In their second innings, Ireland lost William Porterfield just off the second ball in the first over. However, Andrew Balbirnie and Paul Stirling negotiated well in the last few overs and didn’t let any wicket fall further. Ireland finished the day with a score of 22/1.

Here is how Twitterati reacted:

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