India defeated Afghanistan in their second match of the ICC World Cup 2023 in Delhi on October 11. This was a dominating win as the Men in Blue reached the target with 8 wickets in hand and 90 balls to spare.
Afghanistan opted to bat first after captain Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss. He also led from the front with a knock of 80 runs off 88 balls, including one six and eight boundaries. He added more than 120 runs with Azmatullah Omarzai, who made 62 off 69 deliveries, including four sixes and two fours.
Jasprit Bumrah starred with 4/39, while Hardik Pandya, who is celebrating his 30th birthday, picked two scalps.
In response, Rohit Sharma smacked a 63-ball century, the fastest by an Indian in World cups, and scored a total of 131 in 84 balls with 16 fours and 5 sixes. Ishan Kishan also made 47 in 47 with 5 fours and 2 sixes. Both the batters fell to Rashid Khan.
Then Virat Kohli (55*) and Shreyas Iyer (25*) took India home without further damage.
Before the match, there was kind of an undercurrent as Virat Kohli would be facing Naveen Ul Haq for the first and last time in the World Cup. The two had an infamous altercation during the IPL 2023, which spilled over to Kohli and Gautam Gambhir going at one another.
But this time, during the 26th over of India's chase, Kohli and Naveen engaged in a warm exchange and shared a multi-million-dollar hug to bury the hatchet. a warm smile lit up Kohli's face, while Naveen looked pleased too, signaling the end of what was a pretty bitter episode between the two.
Gautam Gambhir, who was on the air doing commentary in Hindi for Star Sports, said (Translated from Hindi): “You fight on the field, not off the field. Every player has the right to fight for his team, fight for respect, and fight to win. It doesn’t matter which country you belong to or how good of a player you are. you first fight for his team, fight for respect fight to win, and fight for the dressing room. The good thing was when we saw Virat Kohli and Naveen Ul Haq, in between the overs, that the fight happened and ended.”
“I would also want to tell the crowd and fans that any player in the ground or on social media, shouldn’t be trolled or made fun of in the ground. You are passionate when you represent your team. It was a huge thing for Naveen to play in IPL coming from Afghanistan,” Gambhir continued.
Here is the video:
In between the overs, Kohli was also seen signaling the fans in the stadium to stop targeting Naveen while shaking his head and fingers in a no sign.
