Team India has finally registered a win in the T20 World Cup 2021 against Afghanistan after having faced two consecutive losses against Pakistan and Afghanistan respectively. After having put into bat first, India openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul got off to a flying start and added 140 runs for the first wicket as well.
While Rohit Sharma scored 74 runs from just 47 balls, KL Rahul hit 69 runs from 48 balls as well. And, they put up 210 runs in their allotted 20 overs. Even, Afghanistan team couldn’t do well with the ball too and they eventually lost the game by 66 runs as well.
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And, after the match, Rohit Sharma was seen hilariously counting the number of reporters in the post-match press conference as well. Notably, he also won the Man of the Match award and with this win, India’s hope of semi-final qualification is alive too.
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After the win, Virat Kohli said: “Much better wicket to be fair. We spoke about the fact that in the other games, if we just had two overs of free-flowing batting, then that sends a message to the opposition that we are going to put you under the pump. When we do that, we know how we can play. Sometimes, you do fall to the pressure and have to accept that. T20 cricket is a very instinctive game, in batting, bowling and decision-making. We do make decisions on the go. Top three is mostly settled unless situations like today when the openers batted all the way through and the power-hitters were ready.”
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He continued: “We don’t always decide early to go hard, but we do back ourselves and when we do get going, we know what we can do. Well, yes that is the plan (to keep playing this way) but as I said, sometimes you just give in to the pressure. The other teams bowled really well to us. Yes, it (net run rate) was to be honest. We are always positive, and so were thinking about it. The return of Ash (is the biggest positive), we saw him doing well in the IPL and when he does this, we get control in the middle overs. That’s what I’m most pleased about (today).”
Rohit Sharma said: “The idea was to go after it, and get off to a good start, which didn’t happen in the first two games and lay the platform for the others. Exceptional batting from Rahul, and that partnership was vital. We were prepared to field first, and it was a good pitch to bat on. Getting to a respectable total was important, and the NRR could come into play so we had to win by a good margin, so glad we got that. Today it was necessary to get off to a good start, and that’s not my natural game – I usually like to get in. So I made an effort to settle in, play cricketing shots, and put up a big total.”
