CWC 2019: Faith in death over-specialists paid off for Team India, says Kedar Jadhav 

India managed to escape with a narrow victory over Afghanistan on Saturday.

Mohammad Shami bowled a terrific last over | Getty

India could eventually prevail despite being pushed to the brink in a World Cup 2019 game by Afghanistan this Saturday (June 22) because of its quality death over-specialists, said middle-order batsman Kedar Jadhav after the game. 

In a tense game at the Rose Bowl, Southampton, Afghanistan restricted India to just 224/8 before falling short by just 11 runs at the end. Thanks to some outstanding bowling from Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami. 

"Obviously, we had belief in our death specialist bowlers," Jadhav told reporters after scoring 52 runs himself towards the win. "Bumrah is the number one bowler. We knew we had to get just one wicket to break that partnership, and the next batsman would be finding it difficult to score those runs in that scenario. So we knew just one wicket away from that crucial win."

Shami picked up a hat-trick when Afghanistan needed 12 more runs off 4 balls for a remarkable win. His accurate yorkers at the end helped India bundle out the Afghans for 213 in 49.5 overs. 

Earlier on, India struggled to get going with the bat but other than Jadhav, skipper Virat Kohli (67), KL Rahul (30) and MS Dhoni (28) contributed towards a modest total. Mujeeb Ur Rahman (1/26), Mohammad Nabi (2/33) and Rashid Khan (1/38) delivered fantastic spells for Afghanistan. 

"The wicket was slow and they were playing with four spinner. The ball was turning…it was difficult to play shots. When the wicket is such, you need to analyse what sort of score we are looking at. Our actual plan was to look for around 250, we were targeting 250-260 but fell short by 20-30 runs."

"So going into the fielding, we knew that we have to make up those 15, 20 runs in fielding. Obviously, credit to the bowlers that they defended this small total," Jadhav concluded. 

(Inputs from PTI)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 23 Jun, 2019

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