India registered an easy eight-wicket win over Afghanistan in the ICC World Cup 2023 match on Wednesday, October 11. Rohit Sharma smashed a record-breaking century and Jasprit Bumrah bowled his best-ever World Cup spell to contribute to India's dominating win at Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Afghanistan pulled off their highest total against India after brilliant fifties from skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi and youngster Azmatullah Omarzai. But Rohit smashed his seventh ODI World Cup hundred in just 63 balls and Virat Kohli recorded his second consecutive fifty in World Cup 2023 to give India an easy win.
Shahid won the toss and elected to bat first with no changes to his playing eleven. India recalled Shardul Thakur to their playing eleven in the place of veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in the only change. Afghanistan openers Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmanullah Gurbaz struggled for a good start despite showing some early impressive signs.
Bumrah gave India a breakthrough in the seventh over with Ibrahim's valuable wicket and then Afghanistan stumbled down to three wickets with just 63 runs on the scorecard. Hashmatullah and Omarzai pulled off a 121-run stand for the fourth wicket to put Afghanistan on target for a big total. Omarzai smashed 62 runs and Hashmatullah added 80 off 88 balls before losing their wickets.
Indian bowlers made a late comeback to deny Afghanistan a 300-plus total with Bumrah taking four wickets while conceding just 39 runs, his best spell in ODI World Cup matches. Hardik Pandya also picked two wickets to make an impact on his birthday while Shardul Thakur and Kuldeep Yadav picked one each.
While chasing a 273-run target, Rohit gave an explosive start to India to kill the game in the early stages. He smashed a 30-ball fifty and then reached the 100-run mark in just 63 balls to register the fastest century for India in the ODI World Cup history. Rohit also broke Sachin Tendulkar's record for most hundreds in the World Cup by bringing his seventh hundred in his only 19th ODI World Cup innings.
Rohit and Ishan produced a 156-run stand for the opening wicket to put India in a comfortable position to chase. Isahan scored 47 runs off 47 balls and Rohit top-scored with 131 runs off 84 balls to claim the Player of the Match award. Virat Kohli continued his red-hot form with another fifty in the tournament and pushed India to an easy win with a straight four off Azmatullah in the 35th over.
India playing XI - Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Afghanistan playing XI - Rahmanullah Gurbaz (w), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi
