Ervine 206*, Madhevere 100* as Zimbabwe and Afganistan play out draw

Zimbabwe 504 (Taylor 131, Bennett 128*) and 523 for 5 (Ervine 206*, Madhevere 100*) drew with Afganistan 514 (Rahmat 173, Rahmanullah 113, Atal 105)

Craig Ervine became the third oldest man to score a double-century and Wessly Madhevere brought up his maiden Test century as Zimbabwe batted throughout the fifth and final day to draw the first Test against Afghanistan in Sharjah.

That this match would end in a draw was certain when play resumed on Monday as the pitch continued to remain unresponsive and offered no assistance to the bowlers.

It was difficult to determine a safe total that could provide Zimbabwe enough cushion and time to force a result, considering the nature of this pitch. So Brian Bennett decided to grind Afghanistan in the Sharjah heat ahead of the second Test which starts in four days.

On his part, Afghanistan captain Rahmat Shah bowled part-time spin through the afternoon and evening sessions to protect his frontline bowlers. He did not even take the new ball despite the one in the use scuffing up to such an extent that it lost the seam as Zimbabwe batted for over 122 overs in the third innings.

That Zimbabwe would make Afghanistan labour throughout the day was clear when Bennett - who brought up his half-century in the first over - was cleaned up before drinks in the morning session when Mohammad Saleem nipped a back-of-the-length delivery into him to hit the top of his leg stump. It brought Antum Naqvi to the crease and the debutant resorted to spending time at the crease over run accumulation as Zimbabwe added 88 runs in the morning session.

Saleem bent his back with Naqvi and peppered Naqvi with short balls in a seven-over-long spell and the batter copped blows on his body rather than pulling him. At that point, there were signs of reverse swing, but they vanished as Saleem continued to bang the ball on the abrasive deck.

While Naqvi remained conservative throughout his stay - his first boundary coming off the 102nd ball he faced - Ervine put his sweeping skills to test throughout the day. He swept with great control on either of the pitch, often using his long-levers to drag the ball from wide outside off behind square.

He crossed the 100-run mark in the afternoon session after drinks, becoming only the second oldest man, behind Misbah-ul-Haq, to achieve the milestone since 2000. Naqvi took 110 balls to score his maiden Test half-century. The two added 140 runs off 253 balls for the fifth wicket as Shah threw the ball to his auxiliary bowlers to run down the clock.

The spinners largely resorted to defensive lines, aiming their flighted deliveries on the pads. When Shahidullah erred down the leg, umpire Rashid Riaz sprang into action to discourage the negative bowling - declaring one such delivery as a wide which resulted in a deliberation between the umpire and Afghanistan captain.

Madhevere played an enterprising innings after Naqvi's dismissal and Ervine also decided to have some fun later in the day. Madhevere brought up 50 at run-a-ball only to get slow as his maiden century in the format neared. Ervine, meanwhile, continued to stroke boundaries - he struck 23 fours and two sixes in his unbeaten 206 off 279 balls - and smashed Abdul Malik for three consecutive boundaries in an over with a four sandwiched between two sixes over midwicket.

Though there remained no ambiguity about this match ending any other way than a draw by drinks in the evening session, the play continued until the two batters ticked off the milestones. In the process, Zimbabwe became the only team to score totals of more than 500 in both innings of a Test and also recorded their highest aggregate score of the match.

Expect much more milestones for the batters in the second Test if the curators roll out a similar surface as the one they did for this match.