ABU DHABI – India defeated Afghanistan by 66 runs in a Group 2 Super 12 encounter, achieving the first victory of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup on Wednesday.
Earlier, Rohit Sharma (74) KL Rahul (69) helped India to set a mammoth target of 211 runs for the rival team in the must-win match. After they were removed by Afghan bowler, India Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant finished the innings in style.
India’s mammoth total is the first time a team have passed 200 at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.
Defeats to Pakistan and New Zealand have put India in serious trouble in Group 2. The heavy-margin win over Afghanistan has revived the hopes for India to qualify for the semi-finals.
Earlier, Afghanistan won the toss and decided to field first against India.
Talk about getting into the groove 💪 👍@imVkohli | @ImRo45 #TeamIndia #T20WorldCup #INDvAFG pic.twitter.com/utXY9tSOKE
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 3, 2021
With all the damage so far, if India beat Scotland and Namibia in their subsequent games, the former champions would need other results to go their way and the net run rate to favor them to make the last four.
As of now, purely on run rate, the Indian cricket team stands only behind Namibia at -1.609. Experts termed the Indian performance as a collective failure rooted by poor planning.
Following the eight-wicket rout by the Black Caps, Kohli admitted that the Indian team was not brave enough while Men in Blue have also faced the music on social media.
Fanatics under the Modi-led government have even crossed the line after it was alleged that the users sent rape threats to the 10-month-old daughter of Virat Kohli.
Meanwhile, the second-placed Afghan team has played three Super 12 matches and has won two while losing one fixture against Green Shirts.
Former Afghanistan skipper Asghar Afghan stepped down as he announced his international retirement after playing against Namibia. The last time India and Afghanistan faced each other was in 2019 which Men in Blue bagged by 11 runs.
Squads:
India: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Rahul Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kishan, Varun Chakaravarthy
Afghanistan: Hazratullah Zazai, Mohammad Shahzad(w), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi(c), Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Karim Janat, Hamid Hassan, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Usman Ghani, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Fareed Ahmad, Sharafuddin Ashraf
