India vs Afghanistan, one-off Test match: Moments of the day

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And, so it happened.

After all the frenzy, after all the buildup, after the plethora of emotional stories, after the various tales of valor kicking adversity away, Afghanistan finally became a Test playing nation.

It was a mixed-bag for the debutants, they were always behind the pace in Test cricket, they tried to catch up, fell behind again, and then tried again, got a toe in finally towards the end of the day.

The hosts, on the other hand, showed why they are the number one side in the world, they dictated proceedings right from ball one, but then as they were cruising along, they slipped and frittered away a solid start and Test cricket smiled again as the day ended.

Here in this slider, we take a look at five pivotal moments of the day.

#5 Afghanistan's late resurgence

Much like the gloomy clouds which kept descending on the ground, the day was looking to be a bleak one for the debutants, but much like they have done in their entire life, they never gave up and this sparked a revival towards the end of the day.

India, who were 280 for 1 at one stage, and were milking the opponents at a rate of more than five slipped and lost five wickets for 63 runs.

Dinesh Karthik, the wicket-keeper batsman who made his comeback to the Test side after a wait of eight years, was run out attempting a risky run, and this perfectly summed up how India tripped in the final phase of the day.

Although for much of the day, Afghanistan chased leather, they can now hope to knock over the hosts on Day 2 and stay afloat in the game as any score in excess of 450 will effectively shut them out of the game.

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