Arthur Morris, Nari Contractor, Aamer Malik. All three Test cricketers, who have now been joined in their select club by Afghanistan's Noor Ali.

The feat that the four batsmen share - scoring a century in each innings on their first-class debut. Ali did it in Afghanistan's Intercontinental Cup match against Zimbabwe XI, which finished in a draw yesterday.

Arthur Morris was the first to do it, playing for New South Wales against Queensland in December 1940, aged 18. He scored 148 opening the batting in the first innings, and 111 in the second, helping his team to a 404 run win. He went on to play 46 Test matches for Australia, scoring 3533 runs at an average of 46.48.

India's Nari Contractor was also 18 when he made his first-class debut, playing for Gujarat in a Ranji Trophy match against Baroda in November 1952. He scored 152 in the first innings and an unbeaten 102 in the second, but the match finished in a draw. He went onto play 31 Tests for India, scoring 8611 runs at an average of 39.86 before his Test career came to an end when he was struck on the head by Charlie Griffith playing for India against Barbados in 1962, an incident that very nearly ended his life. He returned to first-class cricket, but never played Test matches again.

It was nearly 30 years before the feat was next achieved, this time by Pakistan's Aamer Malik, playing for Lahore City A against Pakistan Railways in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy in January 1980. He scored 132 not out in the first innings, and 110 in the second, leading his team to a 229 run win. He played 14 Tests and 24 ODIs for Pakistan.

And so we come to August 2009 and Afghanistan playing their first ever first-class match against a Zimbabwe XI in the Intercontinental Cup at Mutare Sports Club. Nine of the Afghanistan side were making their first-class debut (Mohammad Nabi and Hameed Hasan had both previously played for Pakistan Customs, with Nabi also playing for the MCC) including Noor Ali, who opened the batting with Ahmed Shah.

With some wondering if Afghanistan's occasionally fragile batting line-up could stand the rigours of the longer game, Noor Ali was the first to show the detractors that they were wrong with a fine and patient 130. Mohammad Nabi was the other centurion in the first innings for the Afghans. He followed this with an unbeaten 100 in the second innings before the match was declared drawn, and putting him in an elite club.

Afghanistan's next Intercontinental Cup match starts on Monday against the Netherlands at the VRA ground in Amstelveen. They follow this with two ODIs at the same venue on 30 August and 1 September. All three matches will be covered live on CricketEurope.