Ibrahim’s maiden hundred leads Afghanistan’s fightback

COLOMBO: Afghanistan came surging back into the Test on day three, first polishing off the Sri Lanka tail quickly, before Ibrahim Zadran put up big stands with Noor Ali Zadran and Rahmat Shah, as he completed a valiant maiden Test centuryIbrahim and Shah remained unbeaten at the close, which means Afghanistan have nine wickets left as they seek to wipe out the 42 runs remaining in their deficit, and establish a lead that will test Sri Lanka. The surface had not yet begun to take ripping turn, and remained excellent for batting. But Afghanistan do have two spinners in their attack – albeit very inexperienced – who may be able to exploit what assistance there is.

Sri Lanka will rue their missed chances. Ibrahim had been on 39 when he came down the pitch to smash a Prabath Jayasuriya delivery straight back to the bowler, who let it burst through his fingers and on to the boundary for four. The easier of the chances came to Nishan Madushka at short mid on when Ibrahim was on 63. This was again struck hard, but at a catchable height near his head. He got his hands up, but couldn’t quite wrap his fingers around the ball.Sri Lanka’s bowlers were largely disciplined, even if they could not coax life out of a pitch that had become good for batting. Asitha Fernando was the best of them, delivering some excellent bursts of short-pitched bowling, as well as some outstanding fuller deliveries, one of which yielded the only Afghanistan wicket to fall – that of Noor, for 47.

But the day belonged to Ibrahim. He had his outside edge occasionally beaten with the new ball and was scoreless for 14 deliveries, but once he got moving, he kept a steady tempo. His first runs were via a glance to the fine leg boundary, but early in his innings he was mostly strong in the arc between cover and mid off. Between the boundaries, which came principally off full and slightly wide deliveries, there was a substantial diet of singles all around the wicket. Ibrahim took 84 balls to get into his 30s. During his 106-run partnership with Noor, the primary goal seemed to be to bat time.The half-century came off the last over before tea, and in the evening Ibrahim consolidated. He was hitting boundaries through long on and midwicket now. Sri Lanka attempted all sorts of catching men to try and lure a mistake, but aside from that dropped chance on 63, Ibrahim found ways to progress without taking risks. He was mostly only trying to hit fours off the bad deliveries – usually ones that were overpitched. He got to his hundred – the fourth ever for Afghanistan – off the last over of the day.Noor’s innings, in contrast to Ibrahim’s was troubled, but he nevertheless stuck it out for 136 deliveries and fell only three runs short of what would have been a maiden fifty on debut. He was particularly uncomfortable against Asitha’s burst of bouncers soon after lunch, but he survived it narrowly, and it would only be in the third session that Asitha would get him out, pinging him in front of leg stump with a fast, full delivery. Noor made the majority of his runs behind the wicket – a reflection, partly, of how short Sri Lanka bowled to him.Rahmat, who got to 46 off 98 before stumps, and was part of a 93-run unbeaten partnership with Ibrahim, made all but 11 of his runs on the offside. He was strong down the ground, especially, finding thre of his five boundaries there.