After a significantly poor campaign in the 2021 T20 World Cup held in UAE by the BCCI, India has kept their playoff hope alive. The Indian Cricket Team has defeated the Afghanistan Cricket Team in their third game of the tournament by 66 runs. Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and the duo of Pandya and Pant were starring with the bat in hand. While comeback man Ravichandran Ashwin was the pick of the bowlers. Although Afghanistan is a second-tier cricketing nation their team is very strong in the shortest format of the game. Here is a look: –
India VS Afghanistan Playing XIs: –
India: –
KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.
Afghanistan: –
Hazratullah Zazai, Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Mohammad Nabi (c), Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Naveen-ul-Haq, Hamid Hassan
India VS Afghanistan First Innings: –
The toss was won by Afghanistan Captain Mohammad Nabi. Asghar Afghan, the veteran Afghani legend who retired in the last game was replaced by Sharfuddin Ashraf. Afghanistan was looking to exploit the weakness of the Indian batting. But Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul walked in to bat with other plans. The pitch was a flat track and it was bound to be a run fiasco.
Rohit Sharma started to pile on the pain from the second over itself. Nabi started the proceedings with the ball in hand but didn’t bowl the second over of his spell. Rohit and Rahul looked extremely dominant in the powerplay. Scoring 54 runs in the powerplay. The batsmen went after Naveen-Ul-Haq. Rohit and Rahul stitched a match-winning partnership of 140 runs before Rohit handed out a catch to Mohammad Nabi. Rohit was out for 74 runs off 47 balls. Rahul was the next one back to the pavilion attempting to play an unneeded ramp shot. Pandya and Pant then ended the proceedings by scoring 35 of 13 balls and 27 of 13 balls respectively. India ended with 210.
India VS Afghanistan Second Innings: –
The second innings did start with a bang for the Afghani team as Hazrath Zazai was piling the pain on Indian bowlers. His short-arm jab to Jasprit Bumrah over mid-wicket was a treat to watch. It was the shot of the night. However, the innings stumbled to 13 for 2 when both the openers were out caught. The crucial moments of the match were when Rohit had picked a clean-looking catch and it was given Not Out by the Umpire. The next instance again was when Jadeja pulled out a diving screamer and it was again given Not Out on the big screen. Karim Janat was the top scorer for Afghanistan with 42 runs of 22 balls. Mohammad Shami came back strong with 3 wickets of his full quota of 4 overs.
Brief Scores India VS Afghanistan: –
India Batting: -Total 210/2, Rohit 74(47), Rahul 69(48), Karim Janat 7-1, Naib 39-1.
Afghanistan Batting: -Total 144/7, Karim Janat 42(22), Mohammad Nabi 35(32), Mohammad Shami 32-3.
