It took a thoroughly dominating performance from India to get off the mark in the T20 World Cup as they beat Afghanistan by 66 runs in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
After being put into bat, the Indian openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul were off to a flying start as the two hammered the Afghan bowlers all around the park to notch up individual fifties and put 140 runs on the board in less than 15 overs for the first wicket.
Rohit was eventually caught by Nabi off Karim Janat for a brutal 47-ball 74 while Rahul followed his seven runs later after he was dismissed by Gulbadin for 69 off 48. But the onslaught from the Indian batters didn’t really stop as wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya were promoted up the order.
The left-right batting duo then unleashed some fireworks and chipped in with an unbeaten stand of 63 runs for the third wicket. Pant remained unbeaten at a 13-ball 27 which included three maximums while Pandya was back in some form as he scored 35* in just 13 deliveries to help India post a massive 210/2 in 20 overs.
But Afghanistan’s misery didn’t stop here as Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami scalped early wickets during the chase and reduced them to 13/2 in the fourth over itself. Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Naib tried to steady the ship with a partnership of 35 runs for the third wicket but Gurbaz’s dismissal saw Afghanistan lose a few wickets at regular intervals and were left tottering at 69/5.
Captain Nabi who had walked in at number six along with Janat took the onus and provided the much-needed resistance to the side and scored a partnership of 57 runs for the sixth wicket before Nabi was undone by Shami for 35 off 32.
Janat though went on to score some runs and ended up getting 42* off 22 but his efforts weren’t really enough to take Afghanistan over the line as the side was restricted to 144/7 in 20 overs.
For India, Shami returned with figures of 3/32 while R Ashwin who was playing his first white-ball match in more than four overs bowled an economical spell and also scalped a couple of wickets for 14 runs in 4 overs.
India skipper Virat Kohli talked about the tweak that the side made in the batting order and also admitted that the track was a bit different and a better one.
“Much better wicket to be fair. We spoke about the fact that in the other games, if we just had two overs of free-flowing batting, then that sends a message to the opposition that we are going to put you under the pump. When we do that, we know how we can play. Sometimes, you do fall to the pressure and have to accept that. T20 cricket is a very instinctive game, in batting, bowling and decision-making. We do make decisions on the go,” he said in the post-match presentation.
India will now play Scotland on Friday in Dubai while Afghanistan will lock horns with New Zealand on Sunday in Abu Dhabi.