India Shoot Down Afghans in Super Game

Bridgetown (Barbados): Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah stood out as the Blues turned in a red hot show to begin their Super Eight campaign with a convincing 47-run victory over Afghanistan at the Kensington Oval here on Thursday.

After rattling a robust 181, they bowled out Rashid Khan’s men for 134 to get a headstart in their quest for a spot in the semifinals.

None of the Afghan batters could withstand the pressure created by the bowlers, among whom Bumrah was brilliant with figures of 4-1-7-3. Azmatullah Omarzai was their highest scorer with 26.

Earlier, India elected to bat and posted their highest total of the tournament, surpassing the 119 all out against Pakistan in New York. It was built on Surya’s hurricane half-ton, Hardik Pandya’s thrilling 32 and their stabilising stand of 60 for the fifth wicket.

Surya was stylish, timing the ball sweetly as he sent it scurrying to the fence five times and thrice over it. Some of his shots were picture perfect as he executed them in complete balance. The No. 4 brought up his half-century and 150 of India’s innings with a boundary off Farooqi but fell soon, holing out to Mohammad Nabi at long-off after making 53 in 28 balls.

Pandya switched gears in the 16th over. He thumped left-arm spinner Noor Ahmad through cover to bring up his 100th boundary in T20 internationals and celebrated it with a six on the next ball. He was out while trying to up the ante, caught by Omarzai off mediumpacer Naveen-ul Haq, who was the most expensive Afghan bowler, going for 40 in his four overs.

The openers couldn’t click, again. The tournament’s leading wicket taker Fazalhaq Farooqi (3/33) started well, with four dot balls to Rohit Sharma before an edge made its way past Hazratullah Zazai at short third man to the boundary. Off-spinner Nabi was pressed into the attack and bowled a tidy second over in which he conceded only three runs.

Rohit (8 in 13 balls) survived a confident shout for leg before wicket on the first ball of Farooqi’s second over and got away after the Afghans reviewed the umpire’s ‘not out’ decision. However, he did not last long and perished four balls later as he went for a heave but only managed to sky a catch to Rashid Khan at mid-on. That was Farooqi’s 50th wicket in T20 internationals.

It was not until the fifth over that India got their first big hit — Kohli slapped Naveen-ul Haq straight into the sight screen for a six.

Rishabh Pant picked up from the other end, smashing three successive boundaries off Nabi even as Naveen dropped a catch on the boundary. However, Pant was out in the next over, trapped leg before wicket while trying to reverse sweep Rashid Khan. His 20 came off 11 balls.

Kohli followed soon, hitting Rashid straight to Naveen at long-off after making a run-a-ball 24 that contained a sole boundary.

Shivam Dube (10), Ravindra Jadeja (7) and Axar Patel (12) could not contribute significantly to the team total. It did not matter in the end though.