After Australia, India also defeated Afghanistan by a huge margin. Rohit Sharma’s devastating batting led India to a massive eight-wicket victory over Afghanistan in just 35 overs in their second match of the World Cup. As a result, Afghanistan lost to India by a big margin after Bangladesh.
Set to bat against Afghanistan’s target of 273 runs, Rohit Sharma’s devastating innings of 131 runs saw India reach the victory target with the loss of two wickets with 90 balls to spare.
Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan opened for India today. Rohit Sharma started rampaging the Afghan bowlers from the beginning today. As a result, India brought up the team’s half-century in just six overs.
Rampant Rohit Sharma brought up his half century in just 30 balls today. India scored 100 runs in 5 balls in 11 overs due to Rohit’s rampage.
Despite the team’s century, the Afghan bowlers could not break India’s opening pair despite a thousand attempts. Finally, Afghan leg-spinner Rashid Khan succeeded in breaking the pair.
Ishan Kishan goes back after being dismissed by Rashid Khan. As a result, India’s opening pair broke for 156 runs. Ishan returned with 47 runs off 47 balls.
Even after the first wicket, Rohit did not stop. After scoring a half century in 30 balls, he scored a century in just 63 balls. Which includes 12 fours and 4 sixes.
After scoring a century, Rohit finally stopped at 131 runs. Leg spinner Rashid Khan sent him back for 131 runs. Earlier he also returned Ishaan Kishan. He scored 131 runs off just 84 balls.
After Rohit’s departure, Virat Kohli’s 55 runs and Shreyas Iyer’s 25 runs from 90 balls left India losing two wickets to reach the target.
Earlier, Afghanistan won the toss and decided to bat against India. Two openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran went into bat. These two openers have been playing together since the beginning. India appealed for LBW in the 3rd over 4th ball of the match. If the umpire does not respond to the request, India takes a review. But the review failed. Ibrahim Zadran got life. But after that he could not take his innings far.
Jasprit Bumrah was the victim of the team’s 32 runs and he returned to Sajghar. As a result, the opening pair of Afghans broke for 32 runs. Jadran returned with 21 runs off 25 balls.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz teamed up with Rahmat Shah after Jadran’s departure. But Rahmanullah Gurbaz fell victim to Shardul Thakur’s team’s 63 runs. Rehmat Shah also returned after Gurbaz. The Afghans lost 3 wickets for the team’s 63 runs.
After the fall of three wickets for 63 runs, there was concern about the match. But then there is a new twist in the story. Hashmatullah Shahidi and Azmatullah Omarzai formed a partnership after three wickets fell. The pair of these two batsmen overcame the disaster and headed for a big score.
Azmatullah Omarzai scored 50 runs off 62 balls against India today. Which includes a four and three sixes.
After Azmatullah, captain Hashmatullah Shahidi also took a personal half-century. He scored 50 runs off 58 balls. Which includes 5 fours.
When Afghanistan was dreaming in the pair of these two batters. That’s when the rhythm falls. Azmatullah Omarzai returned to Sajghar after Hardik Pandya’s team scored 184 runs. He returned with 62 runs off 69 balls. The pair of 121 runs broke on his departure.
After the departure of Azmatullah Omarzai, Shahidi paired with Mohammad Nabi. Overcoming the disaster of the team, he himself was slowly moving towards the century.
But he was left lbw by Kuldeep Yadav despite raising hopes of a century. He scored 80 runs off 88 balls. After his departure, Afghanistan fell into a batting disaster again.
Najibullah Zadran returned to Sajghar after his departure with two runs. Mohammad Nabi could not stay at the crease for long after that. He also returned to Sajghar after scoring 19 runs off 27 balls.
Then Rashid Khan and Mujib ur Rahman made a pair of 26 runs. This pair broke after the departure of Rashid Khan after scoring 16 runs off 12 balls. In the end, Afghanistan scored 272 runs after losing 8 wickets in the allotted 50 overs.
(October 11/NBW)