New Delhi: After two defeats to archrivals Pakistan and New Zealand, India finally recorded their first win at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Wednesday with a 66-run thrashing of Mohammad Nabi’s in-form Afghanistan side.
The win was achieved on the back of a significant 140-run opening partnership between K.L. Rahul and Rohit Sharma in the first innings, before allrounder Hardik Pandya and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant smashed a combined 62 off 26 balls to take India to 210 for 2, the highest score in the tournament so far.
However, in light of New Zealand beating Scotland by 17 runs earlier in the day, Indian hopes for a semifinal spot are not in their hands and may require you to get your cricketing calculators out.
Apart from a big win against Scotland and Namibia to further boost their net run rate (NRR), India must also hope for Namibia to beat New Zealand, and for the result of the Afghanistan-New Zealand match to be such that India’s NRR surpasses both Afghanistan’s and New Zealand’s.
Also Read: De Kock finally took the knee, but only after putting spotlight on gesture & confused ICC policies
India beat Afghanistan at their own strategy
A much-talked about feature of Afghanistan’s strategy that has typified their T20I success in recent years has been this: If they win the toss, Afghanistan bat first, regardless of the nature of the pitch or the ground conditions on the day, and try to put a sizable total on the board and then give their bowling attack, led by their trio of world-class spinners, licence to put the squeeze on the opposition batsmen.
In their 41 matches in the past five years, prior to Wednesday’s defeat, Mohammad Nabi’s side batted first 26 times, winning 21 of those matches.
On Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, however, seemingly accounting for frontline offspinner Mujeeb ur Rahman’s absence and the dew factor, Nabi chose to field first, a move that would end up playing into India’s hands.
India racing to 210 for 2 meant that it was now their bowlers’ turn to put the squeeze on the Afghan chase in the powerplay itself.
The entirety of India’s bowling attack and fielding were exceptionally clinical, but unlike the previous two games, they were defending such a large total that the dew factor was largely rendered irrelevant, with all the scoreboard pressure being put on an Afghan side traditionally uncomfortable with chasing targets.
Afghanistan wasted new ball on rookie left-arm spinner
It was Afghanistan and head coach Lance Klusener’s usual tactic of giving the off-spinners the new ball that proved to be the Afghans’ undoing, on a pitch that, in recent months, has offered consistent bounce to batsmen as well as movement and swing to new-ball pace bowlers.
This assistance to pace bowlers was especially exploited by the likes of South Africa’s Anrich Nortje and Namibia’s Ruben Trumpelmann, who tore through the Bangladeshi and Scottish top orders, respectively, in previous Super 12 matches.
However, instead of giving the brand new ball to his frontline pacers Naveen ul-Haq and Hamid Hassan, Nabi bowled the first over himself and gave the second to Mujeeb’s replacement, left-arm spinner Sharafuddin Ashraf, who had only taken 5 wickets at an average of over 40 in his brief T20I career thus far.
Nabi offered little threat on such a batting-friendly pitch while Sharafuddin struggled with his lengths, which K.L. Rahul duly punished.
Ditching the Ishan Kishan experiment
A major sticking point in the eyes of India’s critics, such as Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene, following their defeat to New Zealand was the failed gamble to demote Rohit Sharma to the No. 3 position and send Ishan Kishan, who has spent the bulk of his IPL career batting at 4, to open.
However, Suryakumar Yadav’s recovery from his back injury meant that he returned to the Indian lineup in place of Kishan, giving the team greater balance and allowing India’s best available opening pair to fire.
But Suryakumar’s services were not needed, thanks to Rohit and Rahul’s stellar partnership as well as Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant’s death-over power-hitting that took full advantage of Afghanistan’s tactical missteps and ineffective bowling plans.
As a result, India not only put to rest cries of tournament doom and gloom for the time being, but also recovered their NRR to a more respectable level.
India also backed their strongest top 6 batsmen that, barring any injuries, must remain the same for their remaining two Super 12 games against Scotland and Namibia.
Brief scores: India 210/2 (Rohit Sharma 74, K.L. Rahul 69, Karim Janat 1-7), Afghanistan 144/7 (Karim Janat 42 not out, Mohammad Nabi 35, Mohammad Shami 3-32)
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
Also Read: Namibia and Scotland make history, set to join India’s Super 12 group in T20 World Cup