A formidable India led by their trendy openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul lastly put up a near-flawless efficiency to annihilate a hapless Afghanistan by 66 runs to remain afloat within the ICC T20 World Cup right here on Wednesday.
It may effectively be a case of becoming a member of the social gathering two video games too late however a strong batting present to first rating 210 for two after which bowl the disciplined traces to limit Afghanistan to 144 for 7 saved their billion plus followers .
With their internet run-rate lastly coming into the constructive bracket (+0.073), India would now hope that Afghanistan can get better from this drubbing and upset New Zealand, giving Virat Kohli’s males an out of doors probability to qualify for the semi-finals behind Pakistan who’re set to high the group.
India are off the mark ✅#T20WorldCup | #INDvAFG | https://t.co/ZJL2KKL30i pic.twitter.com/llszZPMNtH
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) November 3, 2021
On the day, India did all the pieces that maybe was anticipated of them in opposition to the massive groups.
Rohit introduced his carefree class to the desk whereas Rahul was elegant as ever in India’s imposing complete.
While they’d nonetheless must bear the criticism of getting flattered to deceive in opposition to Pakistan and New Zealand, Rohit (74 off 47 balls) and KL Rahul (69 off 48 balls) made a mockery of Afghanistan’s inexperienced assault, placing up a report 140 runs for the opening stand.
This was additionally the best complete on this version of T20 World Cup however one can solely hope that it hasn’t come two matches too late.
It couldn’t be denied that save Rashid Khan, who was taken to activity by Rohit in his third over, the opposite Afghans had been pedestrian at finest, leaving Hardik Pandya (35 no off 13 balls) and Rishabh Pant (27 no off 13 balls) to feast throughout the demise overs.
The Pandya-Pant duo clobbered 63 runs in 3.3 overs to take the entire which was at all times going to be past Afghanistan’s attain.
When India bowled, Ravichandran Ashwin, enjoying his first worldwide recreation in six months and white ball worldwide after 4 years, was too good for the Afghans with figures of two for 12 in 4 overs that additionally had 12 dots.
Jasprit Bumrah (1/25 in 4 overs) was regular as typical whereas Ravindra Jadeja (1/19 in 3 overs) seemed respectable. Mohammed Shami (3/32 in 4 overs) received a little bit of stick however picked wickets at common intervals.
With no disrespect to India’s efforts, the gulf in bowling requirements was evident within the disdainful method that Rohit and Rahul handled the Afghan assault. Hardik and Pant then added insult to the damage.
The mid-130s velocity of the pacers and lack of swing with not a lot tempo off the monitor was an excellent recipe for catastrophe in opposition to the 2 Indian openers, who had been smarting after back-to-back failures.
On a monitor the place the ball was gripping, Afghanistan captain Mohammed Nabi began along with his off-breaks and launched left-arm spinner Sharafuddin Ashraf from the opposite finish.
For the 2 Indian openers, who wanted a number of massive pictures to get into the groove, there couldn’t have been a extra mouth-watering possibility as Rohit was the primary one off the block with an inside-out lofted boundary over extra-cover off Nabi and a lap-shot off Sharafuddin.
When pacer Naveen ul Haq was launched, Rohit opened his stance to slash the bowler previous level and a straight six whereas Rahul additionally received his share of boundaries.
The 50 of the innings got here in 5 overs nevertheless it was veteran pacer Hamid Hasan, who bowled the final over of the Powerplay to place a short brake on scoring throughout that section after the fielding restrictions had been lifted.
However, the great begin meant that 85 got here off the primary 10 overs with each openers wanting strong for acceleration in direction of the back-10.
One of the higher boundaries from Rohit was the one which he guided a Gulbadin Naib supply in direction of third-man fence, utilizing the bounce to inch in direction of his half-century.
The twenty third T20 International fifty got here when he square-cut an off-colour Naveen to the boundary and Rahul adopted swimsuit with a six over sq. leg off the identical bowler after which lofting Gulbadin over further cowl to achieve the milestone.
By the time Rashid (0/36 in 4 overs) got here for his remaining spell, Rohit and Rahul had been competing to out-score one another.
Rohit saved his finest for Rashid when he lofted the spinner in direction of deep mid-wicket even when he hadn’t reached to the pitch of the supply however the bat-swing did it for him. The subsequent was image good because it was despatched hovering into grass banks.
By the time Rohit was out attempting to smash Karim Janat over further cowl, he had received eight fours and three sixes.
Rahul was additionally dismissed inside one other seven runs, being cleaned up by Gulbadin as he tried to shuffle in direction of off-stump however by then a strong platform for victory was already laid.
