CWC 2019: Mohammad Shami's hat-trick helps India beat Afghanistan in a nail-biting finish by 11 runs

India remains unbeaten in the tournament with four wins in five games.

Virat Kohli made 67 runs | GettyThe 28th match of the ICC World Cup 2019 saw Afghanistan showing why they cannot be ruled out of any match even against the best of the teams. India barely managed to beat them by 11 runs, as they gave a hell of a chase to a paltry target of 225 runs.

India had won the toss and Kohli chose to bat on a slowish pitch. However, when Naib brought on the spinners, the pitch also became sluggish and Indian batsmen failed to make runs consistently and Mujeeb got Rohit out for 1. Rahul made 30 and was looking good for more, but got out to a reverse sweep off Nabi. Kohli (67) and Shankar (29) tried to build a partnership and added 58 runs for the 3rd wicket. But Rahmat Shah got Shankar and Nabi accounted for Kohli, after his third straight fifty in the tournament.

MS Dhoni came in to stabilize the innings, but played an extremely slow inning, trying to bank on the last 10 overs, but the onslaught never came. He made 28 runs in 52 balls and Jadhav made 52 in 68 balls, as India settled for a score of 224/8 in 50 overs. Naib and Nabi both picked two wickets each, while Mujeeb and Rashid went for 64 runs in their cumulative 20 overs and picked two wickets.

Mohammad Shami pulled one back for India as he sent back the dangerous Zazai for 10 runs and Naib fell to Pandya for 27 after a short partnership with Rahmat. Along with Shahidi, Rahmat added 42 runs, but both fell to Bumrah in one over and when Asghar Afghan was bowled by Chahal for 8, Afghanistan was in trouble.

Nabi played an amazing innings of 52 in the end | GettyThough Nabi continued to trudge along, Pandya got Zadran out for 21 and though the total was a small one to chase, Afghanistan got the target down to 16 runs needed off last over and Nabi hit a four off the first ball, but Shami bounced back, sending him back for 52 runs in 55 balls.

Mohammad Shami picked a hat-trick to seal the game and became the second Indian bowler to do so after Chetan Sharma in 1987 edition against New Zealand.

Afghanistan made 213 runs and lost by 11 runs and for India, Shami picked 4/40, Pandya (2/51), Chahal (2/36) and Bumrah (2/39) were the picks of bowlers.

The Cricket fraternity was pleased by the close finish where Afghanistan looked like winning the game at one point, but India showed why they are the favorites to lift the title.

 

 

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 22 Jun, 2019

    Share Via