Sharma keeps India alive at T20 World Cup

Indian openers KL Rahul (L) and Rohit Sharma struck a 140-run partnership 

Opening batsman Rohit Sharma hit a blistering 74 to set up India’s first win at the Twenty20 World Cup with a 66-run drubbing of Afghanistan on Wednesday as Virat Kohli’s team avoided a shock early exit.

The Indian batting finally fired with Sharma and KL Rahul, who made 69, putting on 140 for the opening wicket to guide India to 210 for two in their must-win Super 12 game in Abu Dhabi.

The tournament’s highest total proved too much for Afghanistan who finished on 144-7 in 20 overs.
They still remain in the hunt for the semi-finals along with New Zealand and India. Pakistan have already secured their place in the last-four from the group.

“It was a much better wicket today, to be fair,” said India skipper Kohli.

“We back the guys because they’re so skillful, and sometimes it comes off like today. To give credit to the oppositions, they bowled really well in the first two matches and didn’t let us get away.”

India, who came in as hot favourites but crashed to two straight losses, needed to win their remaining three games and depend on others for their entry in the semis.

Returning off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin returned figures of 2-14 in his first white-ball international since 2017.
Afghanistan, who usually bat first, decided to put India in but that plan spectacularly backfired.
“We wanted to bat second because of the dew, and the wicket looked really good for batting,” said captain Mohammad Nabi whose team now have two wins and two losses.

“In the end there wasn’t that much dew, but India batted really well on this pitch and put our bowlers under pressure. We threw away our wickets and got under pressure.”

But Sharma remained the star with his 47-ball knock that deflated the opposition bowling after Afghanistan elected to field first.

Sharma took five balls to get going with a boundary off skipper Mohammad Nabi, who opened the attack with his off spin, and then tore into the bowling attack.

India raced to 53 in the first six overs of powerplay to signal their intent.

Sharma reached his fifty with a boundary off fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq and then hit a six to bring up the 100 for the opening stand.

Sharma, who had scores of zero and 14 in India’s two losses, smashed the bowlers all around the park for eight fours and three sixes in his 47-ball knock before losing his wicket to Karim Janat.

(AFP)

Chief Scores:
India 210/2 (20): Sharma 74, Rahul 69; Naib 1/36, Janat 1/7
Afghanistan 144/7 (20): Janat 42, Nabi 35; Shami 3/32, Ashwin 2/14