Clinical India remain unbeaten with win over Afghanistan

Jasprit Bumrah made early inroads into the Afghanistan batting with three wickets for seven runs

•  T20 World Cup Super Eights

 India remained undefeated in the T20 World Cup with a clinical 47-run win over Afghanistan in their first Super Eight match played at Bridgetown on Thursday which would have improved their net run rate massively.

On a slow pitch Afghanistan tried to gun down a high score of 182 by having an explosive start. Rahmatullah Gurbaz got them off to his usual flamboyant start with a four and a six but once he fell trying to take down Jasprit Bumrah, the Afghanistan innings simply crumbled with three wickets falling in the powerplay. Gulbadin Naib and Azmatullah Omarzai tried to build a partnership. But it all fell apart quickly after the fall of Naib as India choked the flow of runs and also managed wickets.

India’s opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli struggled to get going in the powerplay on a slow pitch, but the likes of Rishabh Pant (20), Suryakumar Yadav (53 off 28 balls, 5 fours, 3 sixes) and Hardik Pandya (32 off 24 balls, 3 fours, 2 sixes) came to the party to help raise the tempo. Suryakumar, in particular, was superb with his sweep shots which put the pressure back on the bowlers and didn’t allow them to hit the length consistently. Rashid Khan in a good spell of bowling finished with 3/26 with the wickets of Kohli, Pant and Shivam Dube. Fazalhaq Farooqi took a three-fer as well, extending his lead at the top of the wicket-taking charts. India finished strong with 102 runs coming off the last 10 overs, 55 off them in the last five with four wickets also falling.

Scores: 

India 181-8 (20) (Virat Kohli 24, Rishabh Pant 20, Suryakumar Yadav 53, Hardik Pandya 32, Fazalhaq Farooqi 3/33, Rashid Khan 3/26)

Afghanistan 134 (20) (Azmatullah Omarzai 26, Arshdeep Singh 3/36, Jasprit Bumrah 3/7, Kuldeep Yadav 2/32)