India secured their first win of the T20 World Cup as they beat Afghanistan by 66 runs to keep themselves in the hunt for a semi-final spot; Rohit Sharma (74) and KL Rahul (69) put on 140 for the first wicket as India posted 210-2 before keeping Afghanistan to 144-7 in reply
Wednesday 3 November 2021 19:24, UK
India kept their slim hopes of reaching the T20 World Cup semi-finals alive with a thumping 66-run win over Afghanistan in Dubai.
Defeats by Pakistan and New Zealand in their first two games left Virat Kohli's side needing to win all three of their remaining games and hope other results go their way to make the last four, with a significant swing in net run-rate also required.
Openers Rohit Sharma (74 from 47 balls) and KL Rahul (69 from 48) set India on their way with an opening stand of 140 before the firepower of Rishabh Pant (27no from 13) and Hardik Pandya (35no from 13) lifted them all the way to 210-2.
Afghanistan lost both openers early in the chase and never looked like getting close to their mammoth target but, knowing how important net run-rate could prove, they continued to push and finished 144-7.
India must now try to secure similarly comprehensive wins over Scotland and Namibia in their last two games and hope Afghanistan are able to beat New Zealand on Sunday otherwise their tournament will end at the Super 12s stage.
After Afghanistan went against their usual ploy and decided to chase, India got off to a flyer with Rahul swinging an overpitched delivery from Sharafuddin Ashraf over long on in the second over and followed it up with four over the same region.
Rohit joined in with two boundaries and a six off Naveen-ul-Haq a couple of overs later and the pair just kept going with boundaries coming with ever increasing regularity as the overs went by.
Rohit brought up a 37-ball fifty with a four in another expensive Naveen over and Rahul reached his half-century, from 35 balls, in the next over.
With Mujeeb Ur Rahman missing, Afghanistan needed Rashid Khan on top form more than ever but even he could not slow India's momentum as Rohit carted him for consecutive sixes to end the 14th over.
Karim Janat was able to break the stand in the next over, removing Rohit, and Gulbadin Naib dismissed Rahul midway through the 17th but that only exposed Afghanistan to three and a half overs of carnage with Pant and Hardik combining to hit five fours and as many sixes to take India soaring past 200.
Afghanistan were always up against it in the chase but might briefly have contemplated the possibility of a famous win when Hazratullah Zazai swatted Jasprit Bumrah over the legside for six in the second over, but India soon quashed that optimism as Mohammed Shami got rid of Mohammad Shahzad with the last ball of third and Bumrah had his revenge on Zazai with the first delivery of the fourth.
Gulbadin (18 from 20) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (19 from 10) put on 35 for the third wicket with a flurry of boundaries before the end of the powerplay but the latter holed out off Ravindra Jadeja in the seventh over and, with the spinners slowly the scoring rate, Gulbadin was trapped lbw by Ravinchandran Ashwin as the innings reached its midpoint.
Ashwin (2-14) struck again to leave Afghanistan 69-5 and raise India's hopes of a huge swing in the net run-rate but Mohammad Nabi and Janat rallied with a sixth-wicket partnership of 57 to limit the damage for their side.
Shami came back to take a couple of late wickets, finishing with 3-32, and could have had another, only for the third umpire to deem that a stunning effort from Jadeja had been grounded as he dived forwarded to take the catch.
India's win had long since been assured but Janat (42no from 22) kept swinging away and ended the innings with his second six - potentially crucially runs with the second semi-final spot in Group 2 set to go down to the wire.
India's openers - after disappointing showings in the first two games of the tournament led to India posting under-par totals, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul were back to their respective bests in a fantastic opening stand. Rahul was his usual elegant self, his six fours and two sixes only outdone by Rohit's eight boundaries and three maximums in a vintage knock from the right-hander.
Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya - that Virat Kohli dropped himself down the order to allow first Pant and then Hardik go in ahead of him shows how dangerous they both are, especially late in an innings. There was just no let up with Hardik particularly unforgiving to even the slightest error in line or length from the Afghanistan bowlers, striking at a ridiculous 269.3! India will need more of this kind of thing to put themselves in a position to capitalise if New Zealand slip up.
Ravichandran Ashwin - the off-spinner came into the team in Abu Dhabi for his first T20I appearance in more than four years and it is over five since he was anything like a regular in the XI. However, he didn't miss a beat as he rattled through four overs, didn't concede a boundary and finished with 2-14. With stopping the opposition scoring runs as important as racking them up themselves, having an operator as canny as Ashwin back in the line-up could be like gold dust for India.
Next up for India is a clash with already-eliminated Scotland in Dubai on Friday (1.30pm, Sky Sports Cricket and Main Event) while Afghanistan face New Zealand in Abu Dhabi on Sunday (9.30am, Sky Sports Cricket) in a game that is likely to decide who progresses to the semi-finals.
Tomorrow sees Australia take on Bangladesh (9.30am, Sky Sports Cricket and Main Event) in Dubai before Sri Lanka face West Indies in Abu Dhabi (1.30pm, Sky Sports Cricket and Main Event).
Watch the T20 World Cup live on Sky between now and November 14.
