Rahmanullah, Atal and Rahmat blunt Zimbabwe on third day in Sharjah

The third day's play in Sharjah might not have lived up to its reputation of being a moving day, but the six wickets that Zimbabwe were able to get across the afternoon and evening sessions, courtesy Graeme Cremer and Newman Nyamhuri, were enough to put Zimbabwe in control of the first Test again Afghanistan.

Despite valiant centuries from debutant Rahmanullah and Sediqullah Atal, and a gritty 94 not out from their captain Rahmat Shah, Afghanistan were still 102 runs short of Zimbabwe's massive first-innings score of 504 with only three wickets in hand.

It seemed as if it would be a long day in the field for Zimbabwe on Saturday as Rahmanullah and Atal recorded the highest second-wicket partnership for Afghanistan in Tests, stretching their overnight stand of 99 runs to 206. This was also only the fourth time that a partnership of more than 200 was recorded by an Afghanistan pair in the format.