Afghanistan defeated Ireland by seven wickets on Monday, registering their first ever win in the Test format. Asghar Afghan, the captain of Afghanistan has said that this victory is very important for the country and this win makes him extremely happy.
"Happy for today, it is a very historic day for Afghanistan, for Afghanistan people, for our team, for our cricket board. We are very happy. When [we play] a lot of Test matches, we mature. Nowadays, we are playing a lot in Afghanistan first-class cricket. Before, it was three-day, two-day cricket. Now we are playing first-class cricket," International Cricket Council (ICC) quoted Afghan as saying.
"It was our dream to play Test cricket. It was just our second Test and we won the game. I will give a lot of credit to our bowlers, especially Rashid Khan, Waqar (Salamkheil), Yamin (Ahmadzai), and (Mohammad) Nabi. They bowled very well, on a wicket that was good for batting," he added.
Rahmat Shah was instrumental in setting up the match for Afghanistan as he played knocks of 98 and 76 in the match. The batsman was jubilant with his effort and said that the team played the match session by session and came up triumphant.
"I would like to congratulate the country for this win, there was a difference in the pitches - the ODI wickets were suitable for the spin, this was better for batting. I stayed at the wicket, that was important. We played session by session and tried to win the match, but I would like to give credit to the bowlers, they bowled really well," ICC quoted Rahmat as saying.
Afghanistan would now look to take their winning form into the World Cup.
Afghanistan starts off their World Cup campaign on June 01 against Australia.