Tea Afghanistan 28 for 1 (Malik 16, Atal 11*, Suthar 1-0) trail India 564 for 8 dec (Gill 126, Rahul 100, Saleem 6-140) by 536 runs
Siraj, promoted over Kuldeep Yadav, scored all his runs in boundaries. He took apart left-arm spinner Nangeyalia Kharote, and he cut Saleem despite not getting width. Saleem responded by beating his slog and denting middle stump.
Washington and Kuldeep didn’t hurry. Saleem continued to bowl at a high pace even after bowling upwards of 25 overs and beat Kuldeep’s edge regularly. The only bit of intent against Saleem came in the final over of the innings. Washington started it with a pulled six and flicked past mid-on to bring up fifty.
The day began with Afghanistan taking the new ball in the second over and they found seam and swing immediately. Omarzai trapped Gill in front of leg stump and had Pant nick to the wicketkeeper the very next ball in the 89th over. The umpire gave them both not out and wasn’t challenged on both occasions. Afghanistan had one review remaining at the time but failed to make use of it.
After facing a maiden off Ziaur Rahman, Pant charged at him early in the over twice, and picked up boundaries. Gill then brought up India’s 400 with a cut. He picked up two more boundaries off Saleem, who replaced Zia, when he went full and then short.
Saleem remained undeterred. He gradually pulled his length back in the 96th over and had Gill nick to the keeper at the stroke of drinks. Gill added 23 to his overnight score of 103. In his following over, Saleem nearly had Pant chop on. He held his length but was punished by Pant and Dhruv Jurel when he went short.
The ball after Jurel’s pulled four brought up India’s 450, he shouldered arms and Saleem nipped it back to hit top of off. Saleem bowled seven overs in the morning and was expensive, conceding 42 runs, but got the set batters and kept it tight late in his spell.
Pant survived a run-out chance after a bit of lazy running in the 101st over. But there was no luck two overs later when spin was introduced for the first time in the day as he looked to clear the boundary and holed out at long-off for 81.
There was a miscued shot from Suthar off Shahidi but it flew wide of mid-on. Suthar was otherwise comfortable as he batted through to lunch with Washington.
India had two centurions yesterday – KL Rahul (100) and Shubman Gill (126) – and two batters making 81 (Sai Sudharsan and Pant). Each of their ten batters reached double-figures.
