2023 Recap: South Africa, Afghanistan, and Zimbabwe in the test cricket

South Africa is one of the greatest teams in the history of test cricket and still beating them in their home is nearly impossible. Unfortunately, South Africa has played only three test matches this year till 4 December and won two of them. One test match resulted in a draw.  South Africa toured Australia for three test matches at the end of last year; one was played this year. 

Afghanistan is one of the emerging teams in international Cricket and this nation got their test status in 2017 after that they’ve played 7 tests and won three out of them. Afghanistan is not playing test cricket as much as other members are playing and this is why they’ve played only one test match this year against Bangladesh. 

Zimbabwe was one of the strongest teams in the past but over time this team has lost its strength and now they barely qualify for the World Cups. If we talk about their performance in test cricket, they’ve played two test matches this year. In this article, I will the performances of all three teams in a longer format. 

South Africa

South Africa is one of the strongest countries in almost every format but especially in test cricket this team is something else. We’ve seen many great test victories from this team. Unfortunately this year South Africa has played only three test matches. In the tour of Australia at the end of last year, one test match was scheduled in January this year. In that drawn game Proteas didn’t perform well. After Aussie’s score of 475 in the first inning South Africans only managed to score 255 and in the following batters Sarel Erwee and Temba Bavuma fought and managed to dram the game. They lost the series by 2-0. 

In March West Indies came to Australia and played two test matches. South Africa has won both test matches by 87 and 284 runs each. In the last game centurion, Temba Bavuma became man of the match, and high scorer Aiden Markram was awarded player of the series.  

Here are the stats: 

Most runs

PS	Players	Runs
1	Aiden Markram	276
2	Temba Bavuma	252
3	Dean Elger	144

Most Wickets

PS	Players	Wickets
1	Kagiso Rabada	13
2	Gerald Coetzee	9
3	Anrich Nortje	8

Afghanistan 

Afghanistan had played a test this year after 2021 and lost by 546 runs against Bangladesh in Mirpur. In that game, Bangladesh scored 382 runs in the first inning and stopped Afghanistan in 146 in the second inning again they played nice and scored 425 runs. In reply, while chasing the monstrous target of 662 Afghanistan lost all ten wickets in 115 runs and lost the only test by a big margin of 546 runs. Not a single batter from Afghanistan has scored a fifty but Nijat Masood from the bowling lineup took a five-wicket haul in his debut game. 

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe has played two test matches after a long break when West Indies came to their home. West Indies grabbed the series by 1-0 nut in the first game Zimbabwe fought well to avoid the defeat. In the second game, Zimbabwe didn’t manage to play the same and lost the game by an inning and four runs and the series by 1-0. 

Most Runs

PS	Players	Runs
1	Innocent Kaia	172
2	Garry Ballance	155
3	Craig Ervin	124

Most Wickets

PS	Players	Wickets
1	Brandon Mavuta	8
2	Victor Nyauchi	5
3	Wellington Masakadza	5

Also Read: On this day: Ajaz Patel repeated the feat of ten wickets