Indian opener Rohit Sharma had the better of Afghanistan’s ace leg-spinner, Rashid Khan, as the two sides faced each other in the Super 12 stage of the ICC T20 World Cup in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on Wednesday. India scored an impressive 210 for 2 against Afghanistan in the do-or-die match, the tournament’s highest total, following consecutive losses to Pakistan and New Zealand, which placed them on the fifth spot of the six-team Group 2 points table.

Sharma scored 74 off 47 balls as he put up a record 140 runs opening partnership with KL Rahul (69 off 48 balls) against Afghanistan’s inexperienced attack. The highlight of Sharma’s innings came when he hit Khan for two sixes in his third over.

Rashid finished the match with figures of 36/0 in his four overs. This was his most expensive bowling stat in the ongoing T20 World Cup.

Hardik Pandya (35 off 13 balls) and Rishabh Pant (27 no off 13 balls) chipped in with some elegant hitting in the death overs. Rashid was being seen as a potent weapon against the Indian batting line-up, having dismissed Rahul thrice in T20 cricket for a collective 18 runs in 5 overs.

He had also dismissed Sharma twice, conceding 19 runs in 16 balls against the Indian opener.

Rashid has managed to dismiss Virat Kohli once in the T20s and given away 21 runs in 4 overs.

Pandya, too, had struggled against Rashid with the leg-spinner dismissing the Indian all-rounder on two occasions for 27 runs in 27 balls.

However, India’s left-handed batsmen Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya Kishan went into the Super 12 game against Afghanistan with an upper hand against Rashid. Pant had scored 77 runs off 68 balls against Rashid who dismissed him twice, while Pandya remained unbeaten with 64 runs off 51 balls.

India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour had acknowledged the Afghanistan spin threat while speaking to the press on the eve of the Super 12 clash.

“They’re a good team and they have done well. The challenge will be the spinners. And if we can play to our potential, we have a tremendous, skillful set of players, we should be okay,” Rathour told reporters.