# Sports

Rahmat Shah becomes 1st Afghan player to score Test century

Rahmat had previously scored 98 in Afghanistan’s last Test against Ireland in Dehradun.

SNS | New Delhi | September 5, 2019 5:10 pm

Rahmat Shah becomes 1st Afghan player to score Test century

Rahmat Shah on Thursday became the first Afghanistan player to score a century in Test cricket. Rahmat reached the milestone on the opening day of Afghanistan’s only Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong. He scored 102 off 187 balls before being dismissed by Nayeem Hasan.

Talking about the match, Afghanistan won the toss and chose to bat first. Rahmat came into the middle in the 13th over after the dismissal of opener Ihsanullah. He went on to put on a 120-run stand with former skipper Asghar Afghan. At the end of the first session, Rahmat was on 97.

The right-handed batsman finally achieved the historic feat with a four off Nayeem Hassan. However, he went for a loose drive on the very next ball and got a thick edge that was grabbed by Soumya Sarkar at first slip.

Rahmat had previously scored 98 in Afghanistan’s last Test against Ireland in Dehradun. His ton means that all 12 Test-playing countries now have a centurion. The only team to have played Test cricket and not had a centurion is the World XI that was put together with Graeme Smith as captain for a lone Test against Australia in 2005. Virender Sehwag’s 76 was the highest score for them in that match.

Afghanistan Cricket Board took to Twitter to felicitate the 26-year-old centurion. It wrote: “Congratulations to @RahmatShah_08 who became the first Afghan player to score a century in Test Cricket. Shah hit 10 fours and 2 sixes in his innings. #AFGvBAN.”

Congratulations to @RahmatShah_08 who became the first Afghan player to score a century in Test Cricket. Shah hit 10 fours and 2 sixes in his innings. #AFGvBAN pic.twitter.com/w2nJH3TU1Y

— Afghanistan Cricket Board (@ACBofficials) September 5, 2019