Cornwall, Brooks help Windies win One-off Lucknow Test

A brilliant performance by Rahkeem Cornwall with the ball and a century by Shamarh Brooks with the bat helped West Indies win the One-off Azizi Bank Test at Ekana Stadium, Lucknow. Cornwall took 10 wickets in the match including his best-fugures of 75/7 in Tests so far.

Earlier, Windies skipper Jason Holder won the toss and surprisingly initially, opted to field first. However, the decision turned out to be a calculated one as Afghanistan were all out for just 187 in their first Innings succumbing to a tremendous bowling performance from Rahkeem Cornwall who took 75/7.

In response, apart from centurion Shamarh Brooks who put on a brilliant knock of 111, other West Indian batsmen mostly struggled to bat well in the first innings and found it tough to tackle Afghanistan's potent spin trio of Hamza Hotak, Rashid Khan and Zahir Khan. Hotak became the first Afghan bowler to take a five-wicket haul on debut while Rashid and Zahir stepped in with 3 and 2 wickets respectively as West Indies were bowled out for 277 gaining a lead of 90.

Batting in their second innings, Afghan batsmen continues to struggle against spin of Cornwall and Roston Chase as the duo shared 6 wickets between them to have Afghanistan reeling at 109/7 at the end of Day-2 and well on course for an easy win to the Windies.

Afghanistan were bundled out for 120 in the second innings to hand West Indies a below-par target of 31 which they chased down losing the solitary wicket of Kraig Brathwaite and win the One-off Azizi Bank Test.

This was Afghanistan's second loss in its fourth match in the longest format of the game so far and a first for Rashid Khan as their skipper.