Williams’ 145* leads Zimbabwe’s domination against Afghanistan on Boxing Day

With his family and well-wishers watching along from the Queens Sports Club balcony, Zimbabwe’s veteran batter Sean Williams celebrated his fifth Test ton in Bulawayo to give the hosts the upper hand at the end of the first day’s play of the Boxing Day Test against Afghanistan.

Considered Zimbabwe’s best player of the turning ball, Williams not only negated Afghanistan’s spin challenge comfortably but also dominated the bowlers to finish unbeaten on 145.

His control percentage of 90 on a surface that offered decent turn right from the start of play displayed just that, with the inexperienced Afghanistan bowling attack – it was missing Rashid Khan for the Test owing to personal reasons – looking both deflated and bruised by the end of it.

Walking in at the start of the second session to face his first ball with Zimbabwe at 92-2, Williams relied on his footwork to get on top of the bowling.

Usually a frequent sweeper, Williams, on this occasion, took to the cuts, drives and pulls to shepherd the Zimbabwe innings.

With Afghanistan not offering anything too full knowing Williams’ love for the sweep, he countered the bowlers’ lengths by rocking back or going on to the front foot with equal ease.

When Williams charged down the track, he lifted sixes over long-on and long-off. When he hung back, he created the time to slap boundaries through the off side.

Williams’ enterprising batting earned him a half-century in 58 balls, and a century off 115.

But Williams’ innings wasn’t the only one to help Zimbabwe finish the day on an imposing 363-4.

Opener Ben Curran, one of three Zimbabwe debutants and one of six across the two XIs, set the tone early with 68 off 74 balls.

He welcomed fellow debutant Azmatullah Omarzai into Test cricket with a boundary off the allrounder’s first ball in the format, before unleashing ten more boundaries.

Curran was the majority contributor in a 43-run opening partnership with Joylord Gumbie (9), and a 49-run second-wicket stand with Takudzwanashe Kaitano (46), but fell to teen debutant AM Ghazanfar in the last over before lunch after a wrong’un sneaked through his defence to knock his stumps back.

Kaitano and Dion Myers (27), batting at No. 5, could not make full use of their starts, but their time in the middle ensured Zimbabwe lost just one wicket apiece in the two sessions after lunch.

With Williams, Kaitano added 78 for the third wicket, while Myers put on 50 for the fourth.

Myers’ dismissal in the 56th over, out caught and bowled by Ghazanfar for his second strike, brought in Zimbabwe’s captain Craig Ervine at No. 6, and he made certain that Afghanistan finished the day with way more questions than answers.

With Williams showing how to score freely, Ervine dug in and quietly brought up his sixth Test fifty with a leg-side dominant innings.

Ervine’s knock was chanceless, unlike Williams, who, when on 124, needed the aid of a no-ball from Zahir Khan to continue batting.

However, Ervine’s 56 in an unbeaten partnership of 143 for the sixth wicket was equally crucial for Zimbabwe to stamp their dominance on the day.

Play was called off five overs before the scheduled stumps owing to bad light, with Zimbabwe ending the day with a run rate of 4.27.

Their dominance also quietened the collective apprehensions Zimbabwe fans had over the absence of the experienced pair of Sikandar Raza and Richard Ngarava in the XI.

Raza had taken to X (formerly Twitter) on the afternoon of the first day to appeal to fans to “let’s just support the boys on the field”.

Given their first-day effort, those concerns appear to have eased for now. (BBC)