It was already expected from the Indian team’s batsmen to score a lot of runs in the only test match against Afghanistan. Indian batsmen did not disappoint in the first innings and declared after scoring 564 runs. Very few people would have thought that Team India would have to face some trouble in reaching here. But it would hardly have occurred to anyone that an Afghan fast bowler would wreak havoc on the Indian pitch. Mohammad Salim Safi had different intentions, who created trouble for Team India by taking 6 wickets on the basis of his speed and bounce.
Defeated the scoundrels and made a record
On the second day of the only test match being played in Mullanpur, 23 year old pacer Salim Safi showed his speed and edge. Despite the scorching heat, Safi did not lose courage and took 5 or more wickets in an innings for the first time in his Test career. Safi, who was playing only his second Test, also made a record with this. He became the first bowler to take 5 wickets in an innings in Test cricket against India, while becoming only the third Afghan fast bowler to achieve this feat in overall Tests.
Salim Safi started taking wickets from the very first day of the match and single-handedly destroyed India’s top and middle order. On the first day, he had dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal (24) and Sai Sudarshan (81). Then on the second day, his first and third victim of the innings was captain Shubman Gill, who was out after scoring 126 runs. Soon he clean bowled Dhruv Jurel with an excellent ball. In the second session of the day, he completed his 5 wickets in the innings by dismissing Manav Suthar and then after taking some beating from Mohammad Siraj, made him his sixth victim.
What is special in Salim’s bowling?
Salim ended the innings with 6 wickets for 140 runs in 27 overs. But why did Safi get so much success compared to other bowlers of Afghanistan? Especially in India, why did Afghanistan’s pacer make such an impact instead of the spinner? There are many reasons for this and their speed is important in this. Despite the constant temperature of 38-40 degree Celsius in Mullanpur, he continued to bowl his spells at a speed of 140 to 145 kilometers per hour without any problem, due to which there was no fatigue visible in his bowling.
But nothing happens just because of speed. Along with the pace, Safi also got good bounce and when he bowled the second new ball keeping the ball on the exact line-length, it caused trouble. In particular, the seam movement he got was amazing along with his line and pace. Dhruv Jurel’s wicket is the biggest example of this, where he bowled on the line of the fourth stump on good length and it fell and took away the stump while coming in. Jurel thought that not much would come inside but he was mistaken.
India declared its innings
Talking about Team India, the Indian team, which scored 368 runs after losing 3 wickets on the first day, took its score to 564 runs within two sessions on the second day. Team India had scored 107 runs in the first session of the day but lost 3 wickets including set batsmen like Captain Gill (126) and Rishabh Pant. Pant missed completing his century and was out after scoring 81 runs. After this, in the next session, Washington Sundar scored unbeaten 52 runs and took the team to this score. Team India declared its innings about half an hour before the end of the second session.
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