India’s hopes of constructing the final 4 hold by a thread following heavy losses to Pakistan and New Zealand of their first two Tremendous 12 group matches.
India has crushed Afghanistan by 66 runs in Abu Dhabi and saved alive their slim hopes of reaching cricket’s Twenty20 World Cup semi-finals.
The 2007 champions’ hopes of constructing the final 4 hold by a thread following heavy losses to Pakistan and New Zealand of their first two Tremendous 12 group matches.
India’s batting lastly clicked towards Afghanistan, nevertheless, as they racked up the event’s highest complete of 210-2 and restricted their opponents to 144-7.
Openers Rohit Sharma (74) and KL Rahul (69) shared a 140-run opening stand to arrange their huge rating which proved too massive a mountain to climb for Afghanistan’s modest batting lineup.
.@ImRo45 scored a unbelievable 7⃣4⃣ to arrange a 6⃣6⃣-run for #TeamIndia & received the Man of the Match award. ? ?#INDvAFG #T20WorldCup
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/42045c5J05 pic.twitter.com/fdBPkkEnKQ
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 3, 2021
Group 2 leaders Pakistan have booked their semi-final spot and India should win their final two video games to have an opportunity of becoming a member of them within the final 4.
“It was a significantly better wicket right now, to be truthful,” India skipper Virat Kohli stated.
“We again the blokes as a result of they’re so skilful, and typically it comes off like right now. To offer credit score to the oppositions, they bowled very well within the first two matches and didn’t allow us to get away.”
In a event the place chasing groups have held a transparent benefit, Kohli misplaced the toss and his workforce once more batted first towards a spin-heavy Afghanistan.
India couldn’t capitalise on the powerplay overs of their final two matches however their openers lastly fired.
Rohit, judged man of the match, raced to a 37-ball 50 and Rahul reached his half-century within the subsequent over needing two balls fewer.
Rohit smashed leg-spinner Rashid Khan, Afghanistan’s finest hope towards the rampant openers, for back-to-back sixes earlier than falling to Karim Janat within the fifteenth over.
Gulbadin Naib bowled Rahul within the seventeenth over however with Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant being unstoppable within the last overs, there was no respite for the Afghans.
Pandya remained unbeaten after a blistering 13-ball 35, whereas Pant was 27 not out having confronted an equal variety of balls.
‘Threw away wickets’
Afghanistan stumbled early of their chase, dropping each openers to successive deliveries inside the primary 19 balls.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz hit Mohammed Shami (3-32) for back-to-back sixes earlier than providing a skier to Pandya in Ravindra Jadeja’s first over.
As soon as Ravichandran Ashwin eliminated Gulbadin Naib and Najibullah Zadran to scale back them to 69-5 within the twelfth over, Afghanistan had been by no means actually within the contest regardless of Janat’s unbeaten 42.
In the meantime, Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi stated India batted “very well” on the Abu Dhabi pitch.
“We needed to bat second due to the dew, and the wicket regarded actually good for batting,” stated Nabi stated whose workforce now have two wins and two losses.
“In the long run there wasn’t that a lot dew, however India batted very well on this pitch and put our bowlers below strain. We threw away our wickets and obtained below strain.”