India sets new Test record with innings-and-300-run victory over Afghanistan
A dominant three-day performance saw India dismiss Afghanistan for 152 and 112, marking the largest margin of victory in the nation’s Test cricket history.
India has recorded the largest margin of victory in its Test cricket history, defeating Afghanistan by an innings and 300 runs in a one-off match held in New Chandigarh on Monday. The result, achieved on the third day of the contest, surpasses the previous national record of an innings and 272 runs set against the West Indies in Rajkot in 2018.
The victory was anchored by a comprehensive bowling display that saw India take 15 wickets on the final day. After posting 564 for eight declared in their first innings, India enforced the follow-on following Afghanistan’s dismissal for 152. The second innings concluded with Afghanistan bowled out for 112, ending the match in 35.5 overs.
Debutant left-arm spinner Manav Suthar was instrumental in the first innings, claiming six wickets for 33 runs in 22 overs. The 23-year-old from Rajasthan became the seventh Indian spinner and the 10th Indian bowler to take a five-wicket haul on Test debut. His figures of 6/33 stand as the second-best by an Indian bowler on debut, trailing only Narendra Hirwani’s 8/61 against the West Indies in Chennai in 1988.
In the second innings, Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav shared seven wickets between them to seal the win. Sundar took four wickets for 36 runs, while Yadav claimed three for 30. Afghanistan resumed the day at 113 for five but failed to recover, with Prasidh Krishna removing Azmatullah Omarzai early in the session before Suthar finished off the lower order.
Among Asian teams, only Pakistan’s innings-and-324-run victory over New Zealand in Lahore in 2002 exceeds India’s new record margin. On Indian soil, the only larger innings victory occurred in 1958 when the West Indies defeated India by an innings and 336 runs at Eden Gardens.
