Mirpur, Dhaka: India won an easy one sided game by 8 wickets against Afghanistan while chasing 159. The opening stand of 121 runs simply led the foundation of the victory. Later Dinesh Karthik and Rohit Sharma took India to the victory. India finishes their Asia Cup campaign with a win as they are already out from the title race.
Shikhar Dhawan who scored 60 off 78 balls including 4X4 and 1X6 with Ajinkya Rahane who played a knock of 56 runs in 66 balls which included 5 boundaries simply took the match away from Afghanistan. However both got out one after another. Rohit Sharma scored 18 off 24 balls and Dinesh Karthik scored 21 off 27 balls including 3 boundaries.
For Afghanistan, Mohammad Nabi and Mirwais Ashraf took 1 wicket each. Nabi in his 10 overs gave just 30 runs while Mirwais Ashraf gave 26 runs in 5 overs.
India restricted Afghanistan to 159 in their last Asia Cup game after some amazing bowling performances by Indian spinners. Afghanistan had a decent start but they fell down in a row later.
Afghanistan batsmen struggled against the spin. Though Samiullah Shenwari scored a well made 50 off 73 balls including 6X4 and 1X6. Opener Noor Ali Zadran scored 31 of 35 balls which included 6 boundaries. Rest of the team was not able to score above 30.
For India Ravindra Jadeja took 4 wickets in his 10 overs giving away just runs while Ashwin took 3 wickets in 10 overs for 31 runs. Amit Mishra took 1 wicket for 21 runs in his 10 overs while Mohammed Shami was again expensive. He took 2 wickets for 50 runs in 7.2 overs.
Earlier, India captain Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to bowl first against Afghanistan in an inconsequential match of the Asia Cup on Wednesday, with Sri Lanka and Pakistan having already made the final of the five-team tournament.
India decided to go in unchanged with captain Kohli stressing that they "need to be patient" with the side, which is without regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni due to an injury.
Afghanistan made one change, bringing in Rahmat Shah for Hamza Kotak.
India and Afghanistan have both won only one game in the tournament, with wins over Bangladesh.
Team
India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Amit Mishra, Mohammed Shami.
Afghanistan: Mohammad Shahzad†, Noor Ali Zadran, Asghar Stanikzai, 0:1 : Kumar to Noor Ali, no run, Mohammad Nabi*, Samiullah Shenwari, Najibullah Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Mirwais Ashraf, Shapoor Zadran, Dawlat Zadran
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