Afghanistan set a challenging 273-run target for India in their encounter, banking on their captain Hashmatullah Shahidi and batsman Azmatullah Omarzai to do an outstanding job at the plate.
In the ninth match of the World Cup at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla (now Arun Jaitley Stadium), Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat first. The Afghans indicated to build a big innings from the first time they came to bat.
Afghanistan collected 272 runs for the loss of 8 wickets based on captain Hashmatullah Shahidi’s 80 and Azmatullah Omarzai’s 62 in the middle order.
At Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium, South Africa defeated Sri Lanka by scoring 428 runs. Likewise, Sri Lanka scored 326 runs. It is expected that the Afghan board would choose to bat after winning the toss on this field.
The two openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran were moving forward after coming down to bat. But Zadran tried and failed. This opener scored 22 runs off 28 balls. In the seventh over of the innings, off Jasprit Bumrah’s ball, he was caught by the wicketkeeper Lokesh Rahul.
Along the same lines, Rahmanullah Gurbaz also travels. Moreover, he used 28 balls and scored 21 runs. He was dismissed by Hardik Pandya and caught by Shardul Thakur.
Rahmat Shah was dismissed for 16 runs off 22 balls. But Hashmatullah Shahidi and Azmatullah Omarzai showed determination. Both of them made a pair of 119 runs. Omarzai got out after scoring 62 runs off 69 balls. Hashmatullah Shahidi departed after scoring 80 runs off 88 balls. Both these scores led to a big innings for the Afghans.
Then Mohammad Nabi 19, Najibullah Zadran 2, Rashid Khan scored 16 runs. Besides, Mujeeb-ur Rahman scored 10 runs and Naveen-ul-Haq remained unbeaten with 9 runs.
Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah took 4 wickets with 39 runs. Hardik Pandya took 2 wickets and Shardul Thakur and Kuldeep Yadav took 1 wicket each.
A fairly challenging target of 273 runs. But in Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium, where runs flowed, the 273 mark in front of India turned into a very modest target. Which Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli proved.
Batting with the goal of victory, India won by a margin of 8 wickets with the entire 15 overs in hand. Indian captain Rohit Sharma was dismissed after scoring 131 runs off 84 balls where he scored a century in 63 balls. Virat Kohli remained unbeaten on 55 runs.
Two Indian openers, Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan, started to wreak havoc right from the start. Ishan Kishan batted a little more gently than Rohit, who batted at a breakneck rate. In their initial set of 18.4 overs, the two added 156 runs together.
At that time, Ishan Kishan got confused by Rashid Khan’s whirlwind and gave a catch. He was caught by Ibrahim Zadran. Before that, he scored 47 runs off 47 balls.
Then Rohit made a pair of 49 runs with Virat Kohli. After that, Rohit Sharma got out after scoring 131 runs in 84 balls with 16 boundaries and 5 sixes by Rashid Khan. Virat Kohli remains unbeaten on 55 runs off 56 balls. Shreyas Iyer remained unbeaten on 23 balls from 23 balls.
Afghanistan – 272/8 (50.0)
India – 273/2 (35.0)
Result – India won by 8 wickets
Player of the match – Rohit Sharma
India | Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (wk), Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Shardul Thakur, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishan Kishan, Mohammed Siraj |
Afghanistan | Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Rahmat Shah, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Najibullah Zadran, Naveen-ul-Haq, Ibrahim Zadran, Fazalhaq Farooqi |
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