Size does matter. But size alone does not. Towering at 6'6” and weighing 140kg, West Indian cricketer Rahkeem Cornwall has size on his side, along with talent. The burly off-spinner picked up a career-best 7/75 to help West Indies bowl out Afghanistan for a paltry 187 on the opening day of the one-off Test in Lucknow on Wednesday.
Cornwall spun a web around the Afghanistan batsmen on a turning track to dismiss them in 68.3 overs after West Indies won the toss and opted to field. At stumps, West Indies were 68 for two in 22 overs, still trailing Afghanistan by 119 runs.
Sent into bat, Afghanistan started cautiously with the pair of Ibrahim Zadran (17) and Javed Ahmadi (39) stitching 28 runs off 12.2 overs. Cornwall gave West Indies the breakthrough by removing Zadran.
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Cornwall wreaked havoc by picking up the wickets of Rahmat Shah (4), Asghar Afghan (4), Nasir Jamal (2) and Afsar Zazai (32) to reduce Afghanistan to 165 for eight at tea.West Indies skipper Jason Holder (2/22) also contributed two wickets with his medium pace by removing his counterpart Rashid Khan (1) and Amit Hamza (34) before Cornwall put an end to the Afghanistan innings by dismissing Yamin Ahmadzai (18).
In reply, West Indies lost opener Kraigg Braithwaite (11) and Shai Hope (7) early before John Campbell (30 not out) and Shamarh Brooks (19 not out) steadied the ship.
Rahkeem, a right-hand batsman, made his Test debut against India earlier this year. He has scored 2,224 runs in 55 matches in his five-year first-class career. He has also taken 260 wickets and maintained an economy of 2.86.
Rahkeem first played against India in a warm-up match as part of the Indian tour of the West Indies 2016.
(With PTI inputs)