IND vs AFG, 1st T20I: Abhishek Sharma and Arshdeep Singh played central roles as Team India rompd to a seven-wicket victory and a 1-0 series lead in the first of the three T20Is against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on September 13, Sunday. With a modest 157 to chase down to claim the series-opener in the capital city of India, the reigning World T20 Champions made short work of the target to take an early lead, with two matches to play.
IND vs AFG, 1st T20I: Team India peg Afghanistan back in the powerplay after winning the toss
While Varun Chakravarthy and Jasprit Bumrah returned to the playing XI after recovering from their respective injuries, the reigning World T20I champions made an interesting call of leaving out Vaibhav Sooryavanshi despite earning the Player of the Series award in India’s previous T20I leg.
The Indian team were quite incisive in the powerplay, reducing the Afghans to 40/4, headlined by Bumrah striking only in two legal deliveries. Afghanistan’s recovery was largely due to the 83-run partnership between Azmatullah Omarzai and Mohammad Nabi, coming off only 58 deliveries. Both were two of the four hosts’ players to reach double figures as Omarzai top-scored with 64 off 44 deliveries, staying unbeaten and hitting four fours and as many sixes. The seam-bowling all-rounder took Shivam Dube to the cleaners in the 20th over, hitting two sixes, while Mujeeb Ur Rahman slammed consecutive boundaries to finish the innings.
Bumrah, Chakravarthy and Axar Patel took one wicket each, while Arshdeep was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4-0-19-3. The left-arm seamer dismissed Nabi (33), Sediqullah Atal (13) and Rashid (1).
IND vs AFG, 1st T20I: Team India well in front despite losing Sanju Samson cheaply
The Men in Blue lost Sanju Samson in the third over itself as the keeper-batter failed to build on his promising start. After starring with the bat, Omarzai gave the Afghans their first breakthrough by dismissing Samson after two boundaries. But Abhishek Sharma was unstoppable, getting to his 12th T20I fifty only in 22 balls. But Mohammad Nabi denied him a ton by 18 runs in the 11th over of the innings as Rashid Khan took an outstanding catch.
With India needing only five more runs, Ishan Kishan became Nabi’s second victim of the match for 42. The match finished in the 14th over of the innings with a brace from Tilak Varma
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