Afghanistan vs West Indies, Only Test, Day 3, Lucknow: Preview, prediction

One day 2, West Indies bowlers once again made things difficult for the opponents and helped the Windies to walk off with honours.

John Campbell walked in with his overnight partner Shamarh Brooks with the focus of a huge lead. He reached his fifty but failed to convert it into a hundred. After building a partnership of 82 runs with Brooks, Campbell left with West Indies score on 116/3. But Brooks continued his hunt and kept on building small yet valuable partnerships. In due course, he finally completed his hundred and when he left West Indies looked settled. The Windies innings were finally wrapped up for 277 with a 90-run lead over Afghanistan. Rashid Khan took three wickets and Zahir Khan picked up two. But the highlight of the Afghanistan bowling squad was Amir Hamza. He ran through the Afghanistan batting line-up to record a 5-wicket haul to his name.

Afghanistan did not have a lot to worry about but their batting efforts had to face the dangerous Rahkeem Cornwall once again. This time Cornwall managed to get three scalps as he sent the opener Ibrahim Zadran back for 23, and Rahmat Shah and Asghar Afghan for golden ducks. Roston Chase showed his dangerous side during the end when Javed Ahmadi was certain to remain unbeaten on 62. The highest scorer of Afghan innings was dismissed by Chase on the last ball of the day. The way both Cornwall and Chase kept on taking wickets at regular intervals and did not leave any room for the opponents surely hinted how the climax would be.

At stumps on day 2, Afghanistan were on 109/7 with a lead of mere 19 runs. The lower order can only try to increase the lead which looks like a distant dream. West Indies should be able to seal the win as early as possible.

Key players

Rashid Khan (Afghanistan)- Afghanistan are only left with three wickets with Jomel Warrican batting on 4*. Since the idea is to collect some quick runs, Rashid Khan can play a key role. The attacking batsman has one Test fifty and this is a golden opportunity to accumulate more runs.

Rahkeem Cornwall (West Indies)– The bowling analysis of Cornwall on day 2 reads 14-3-41-3. After his 7-wonder show, Cornwall will definitely look for a 5-wicket haul at least in this innings. His spell will be important to restrict Afghanistan to a small total

Brief scores

Afghanistan 187 and 109/7 (Javed Ahmadi 62, Ibrahim Zadran 23; Roston Chase 3/10, Rahkeem Cornwall 3/41) lead West Indies 277 (Shamarh Brooks 111, John Campbell 55;  Amir Hamza 5/74, Rashid 3/114) by 19 runs

Prediction

West Indies are set to record a convincing win.