India and Afghanistan are locking horns in a Super 12 round match of the T20 World Cup 2021 in Abu Dhabi. India are still winless in the tournament while Afghanistan are in a good position on the points table.
Afghanistan won the toss and opted to bowl first. India brought Suryakumar Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin in the playing XI while leaving Ishan Kishan and Varun Chakaravarthy. On the other hand, Sharafuddin Ashraf and Hamid Hassan came in Afghanistan’s playing XI.
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Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul walked out to open the innings. They were in good touch from the very beginning and started hitting boundaries from the very first over. Both openers took no time in getting into their grooves and started punishing Afghanistan bowlers.
Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul were in the mood for fun and scored fast runs. The duo scored 140 runs for the opening wicket before Rohit got out for 74 runs in 47 balls featuring eight fours and three sixes. KL Rahul also notched up his fifty and got out after scoring 69 runs in 48 balls, including six fours and two sixes.
Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya got promoted to bat at 3 and 4 respectively. Both batters tore Afghanistan’s bowling line-up apart and shared a 63-run stand in 21 balls. Hardik scored 35 runs in just 13 balls while Pant scored 27 runs in 13 balls, which propelled India’s score to 210/2 in 20 overs.
In response, Indian bowlers walked out with all guns blazing. Mohammad Shami and Jasprit Bumrah didn’t give easy runs while dismissing both Afghan openers. Rahmanullah Gurbaz played a few flamboyant shots against Shami but was undone by Ravindra Jadeja.
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Ravichandran Ashwin, playing his first white-ball game for India after four years, enjoyed his outing and grabbed two wickets while conceding just 14 runs in his four overs. Indian bowlers didn’t allow any Afghan batter to set their eyes by chipping regular wickets. Shami took three wickets for 32 runs in his final over.
Afghanistan huffed and puffed to 144/7 in 20 overs and lost the match by 66 runs. India registered their maiden victory in this edition of the T20 World Cup.
See how Twitter reacted to this game;
Ashwin bowling well is always a great sign for Indian cricket in every format. Never easy to bowl so well after making a comeback after four years in white ball cricket. #Afgvsindia #INDvsAFG #INDvsAFG
— R P Singh रुद्र प्रताप सिंह (@rpsingh) November 3, 2021
Near perfect innings by India: openers give a gr8 start, finishers excel, score in excess of 200. Only lament is if this had come earlier, situation in the tournament wouldn’t have been so dire. Nonetheless, there’s this match to be won and by handsome margin to keep hope afloat
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) November 3, 2021
Superb win. Now two more Games. Keep adding to the NRR and let’s see what happens on Sunday when NZ play Afghanistan. #INDvsAFG at least cricket fans can enjoy their Diwali. Here is my take. pic.twitter.com/8j8C7pPU4a
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) November 3, 2021
India's Net Run Rate has gone from -1.61 +0.07. #T20WorldCup
— Ben Jones (@benjonescricket) November 3, 2021
New Zealand's 2 remaining matches are against Afghanistan and Namibia. If they win both matches, they will qualify for the semi-finals with #Pakistan #T20WorldCup
— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket) November 3, 2021
Rohit Sharma’s thunderous knock set up India’s 200-plus score. Deserving MoM. Also showed why making him bat no.3 v NZ was so misplaced
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) November 3, 2021
India's death overs economy rate of 11.64 is the highest of any team in the tournament. They are yet to take a wicket in this phase. #T20WorldCup
— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) November 3, 2021
#TeamIndia looking like a completely different side when the openers provide a start like this. Top class batting from @klrahul11 & @imro45 #INDvAFG #T20WorldCup
— S.Badrinath (@s_badrinath) November 3, 2021
Where there is a will there is a way. Great start #TeamIndia #RohitSharma #KLRahul #T20WorldCup @BCCI
— Vinay Kumar R (@Vinay_Kumar_R) November 3, 2021
Great to see this intent by @ImRo45 @klrahul11 🇮🇳 loving it
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) November 3, 2021
If #AFG beat #NZ by one run & NZ beat #NAM by 60 runs, #INDIA should have a combined win aggregate of 107 runs against Nam & #SCO to qualify (assuming teams bat 1st scoring 160 in all games).#T20WorldCup
— Deepu Narayanan (@deeputalks) November 3, 2021
#India has finally opened their account with 2 points in 3 matches.
Their NRR from -1.609 has now jumped to 0.073
However, is this, all too late?
🤞#IndvAfg #IndvsAfg#AFGvIND #AfgvsInd#T20WorldCup21#T20WorldCup#T20worldcup2021— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) November 3, 2021
They came, they saw, they conquered! @WeAreTeamIndia @BCCI 🇮🇳
Highest total in the #T20WorldCup21 #INDvsAFG
— Ridhima Pathak (@PathakRidhima) November 3, 2021
One Rahul is out! Another is in! #INDvsAFG
— Gautam Bhimani (@gbhimani) November 3, 2021
