Team India took one step closer to towards the semi-finals with a confident win against Afghanistan in their opening game of the Super Eight stage at Kensington Oval in Barbados on Thursday, June 20 in the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup. It was a good all-round show from India as they were relentless in their pursuit of those two points despite not being at their best, especially with the bat, with Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah being the two prominent stars of the win for the Men in Blue.
India decided to bat first, which seemed like a going-against-the-grain move as far as the trend was concerned, but given how the results have panned out in the tournament, especially in the Caribbean, it wasn't a rocket science why Rohit Sharma decided to go have a bat first. It wasn't a great start for India as Rohit was dismissed by a left-arm seamer, Fazalhaq Farooqi, not for the first time in the competition. It got even worse with Rashid Khan spinning the web after the powerplay as India lost three crucial wickets in consecutive overs from the Afghanistan skipper.
However, it was time for the World No 1 T20 batter to announce himself in a crunch situation. Despite losing wickets in clumps, Surya was ready to take the bowling on. Hardik Pandya held one end and smashed those occasional sixes but it was Surya, who injected momentum into India's batting innings.
Surya used his sweep shots to a great extent against Rashid, who had his tails up and played those usual lap shots over fine leg and those late pushes on the off-side to open the field for himself. On a wicket where everyone seemed to be struggling, Surya smashed a 27-ball fifty which was key in India getting to a score in excess of 180.
Axar Patel did his bit to provide the finishing touches to India's innings and 181 was always going to be a tricky chase and Jasprit Bumrah made it even trickier for Afghanistan. With the ball stopping a bit, Bumrah was quick to adjust his length and pace coming from New York and got the success early with big wickets of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Hazratullah Zazai. Axar Patel with Ibrahim Zadran's scalp made Afghanistan sink into a deeper hole.
After losing three wickets in the powerplay itself, it was always going to be difficult for Afghanistan to come back from that. Mohammad Nabi and Najibullah Zadran tried their bit but 182 was always out of their reach and India achieved two crucial points to kick off their Super 8 campaign.
