Match Details
Arya: They kept losing wickets at regular intervals which never really allowed them to press for the target. Ravichandran Ashwin had a great return to T20I cricket as he returned with sensational figures of 2/14 in his 4 overs. It was a good effort from Karim Janat and Mohammad Nabi to take their score over 100.
Mohammed Shami came back for his second spell and bagged two wickets in the penultimate over to bag his 3rd wicket. Eventually, they were restricted to 144/7 at the end of the 20th over.
Earlier in the day it was the Afghan skipper Mohammad Nabi who won the toss and opted to field. The Indian opening duo of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul finally displayed their outrageous skills as they shared their biggest partnership of 140 runs to set up a perfect platform in a must-win game.
Both played some exceptional shots and Rohit Sharma, in particular, took a heavy toll on the spin wizard Rashid Khan. After the fall of those two wickets, it was Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya who utilised the launchpad to perfection and slammed a 63 runs partnership in just 21 deliveries. Hardik Pandya was finally back to his best, smashing a 13-ball 35 while Pant remained unbeaten on 27 of 33 deliveries.
Arya: So finally India is off the mark. What a dominating all-round performance but it might still be too little too late as they will require help from other teams to harbour hopes of going through to the semi-final. It was an annihilation and courtesy their massive win by 66 runs, India has managed to turn their net run rate into positive which is some good sign for the Men in Blue.
The run chase of 211 was always going to be a daunting task for the Afghans. A short-arm jab from Hazratullah Zazai set off the run-chase perfectly but both the openers fell in successive deliveries to derail their progress. It was Mohammed Shami who sent back Shehzad while Bumrah accounted for Zazai with a beautifully disguised slower delivery.
Virat Kohli decided to give Mohammed Shami the 3rd overs in the powerplay and it was Rahmanullah Gurbaz who took him to the cleaners. He smashed him for 21 runs in that over to indicate the intentions of Afghanistan. They kept going for the big shots but after a brief little partnership between Gulbadin Naib and Gurbaz, it was all but a mountain too steep to climb for Afghanistan.