Zimbabwe coach Lalchand Rajput Rajput: It’s a fantastic win

Lalchand Rajput

Zimbabwe coach Lalchand Rajput has hailed his team's 10-wicket win over Afghanistan in the first Test in Abu Dhabi, saying it was a "satisfying" effort as they had played a five-day game after a long time.

Zimbabwe, led by skipper Sean Williams, thrashed Afghanistan by 10 wickets inside two days at the Shaikh Zayed stadium in Abu Dhabi to go 1-0 up in the two-Test series.

"It is a fantastic win and also to be 1-0 up in the series. It is great that our bowlers, especially fast bowlers, showed their skills to get Afghanistan out twice in two days and the match finished inside two days," an elated Rajput told PTI from Abu Dhabi.

"Zimbabwe do not often play Test cricket and were playing a Test match after a long gap, so to have a win is satisfying. Our preparation was good and the players played first-class matches to get enough exposure," added Rajput, 59, who has had several successful stints as coach and team manager in the past, including that of India.

Rajput, a domestic veteran, also observed that while pacers of his team got success, it was Afghanistan spinners, who did bulk of the damage. "It is a contrast that Zimbabwe medium pacers bowled their heart out to get 20 wickets, where as Afghanistan spinners did most of the damage to the Zimbabwe batsmen," he said.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever