Team India registered their first victory in the ongoing T20 World Cup as they thrashed Afghanistan by 66 runs in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday (November 3).
Invited to bat first, India piled up a mammoth 210/2 in their allotted 20 overs on the back of half-centuries from Rohit Sharma (74 off 47 balls) and KL Rahul (69 off 48 balls). Hardik Pandya (35* off 13) and Rishabh Pant (27* off 13) also played handy cameos in the death overs.
All the Afghanistan bowlers had a tough outing and Karim Janat, Gulbadin Naib returned with one wicket each.
Defending the total, Indian team put up a much better show this time around as they restricted Afghanistan to 144/7 in 20 overs. The pace duo Mohammad Shami (3-32) and Jasprit Bumrah (1-25) claimed four wickets between them while spin twin R Ashwin (2-14) and Ravindra Jadeja (1-19) shared three scalps in between.
Karim Janat top scored for Afghanistan with 42 not out off 22 balls and skipper Mohammad Nabi made a notable contribution of 32-ball 35.
With this thumping victory, India kept their hopes alive to qualify for the T20 World Cup 2021 semi-final.
For their impressive comeback, Virat Kohli and company received rich praise from the cricket fraternity on Twitter.
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