Powered by openers’ stylish batting and Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya’s exploits in the death, India managed to secure their first win of the T20 World Cup. Virat Kohli and company defeated Afghanistan by 66 runs at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, keeping their semifinals hopes alive. 

Having asked to bat first, Indian openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul stitched a dominant 140-run stand. Sharma brought his carefree elegance to the table during his 47-ball 74 while Rahul (69 off 48 balls) was classy as ever. India managed to put up 210 runs in the first innings. 

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The daunting total would not have been possible without the late strikes by Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya. The duo clobbered 63 runs in 3.3 overs as skipper Virat Kohli did not bat against the Rashid Khan-led attack. 

With their net run-rate finally entering the positive bracket (+0.073), India would now hope that Afghanistan can recover from this drubbing and upset New Zealand, giving Virat Kohli’s men an outside chance to qualify for the semi-finals behind Pakistan who are set to top the group.

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Nabi, who himself bowled only one over, used seven bowlers in total. His best in Rashid Khan and Gulbadin Nai remained wicketless. 

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When India bowled, Ravichandran Ashwin, playing his first international game in six months and white ball international after four years, was too good for the Afghans with figures of 2 for 12 in four overs that also had 12 dots.

Jasprit Bumrah (1/25 in 4 overs) was steady as usual while Ravindra Jadeja (1/19 in 3 overs) looked decent. Mohammed Shami (3/32 in 4 overs) got a bit of stick but picked wickets at regular intervals.