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Virat Kohli & Co finally had a sigh of relief on Wednesday as they defeated Afghanistan by 66 runs to secure their first win in the ongoing t20 World Cup in the UAE and Oman. After losing their first two fixtures – to Pakistan and New Zealand – it was important for the Men in Blue to win against Mohammad Nabi and his men by a bigger margin. Team India played accordingly and as a result, they managed to better their net run rate.
After put to bat first, Indian openers provided a rollicking start to the innings. The duo of KL Rahul (69) and Rohit Sharma (74) stitched a mammoth 140-run 1st-wicket stand and then quick cameos from Hardik Pandya (35*) and Rishabh Pant (27*) powered India to a giant score of 210 for 2 in 20 overs.
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In reply, Afghanistan had a wobbly start. They lost a couple of wickets at the score of 13 and were restricted to 144 for 7. All-rounder Karim Janat remained unbeaten on 42 and was the top scorer of his team.
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India are pretty much in the contest as they witnessed their run-rate getting improved from -1.609 to + 0.073. They needed to restrict Afghanistan to 147 or win by at least 63 runs, and that’s what they did.
Now Kohli’s team will face Namibia and Scotland in their next fixtures which they need to win with bigger margins. However, their dependency on New Zealand’s next game against Afghanistan persists.
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India can only qualify to the semis if Afghanistan beat New Zealand, no matter what the margin is. The loss of Black Caps will ensure India’s way ahead, given the Men in Blue defeated Scotland and Namibia, just like they did against Mohammad Nabi & Co on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.
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