India vs. Afghanistan Match Review – A Complexed Win for India as Dhoni had Troubles
After the dramatic defeat of England by Sri Lanka, India came all geared to crumble Afghanistan and scored the victory by 11 runs.
At once it seemed as Afghanistan batting would take away the game but a deadly attack from India’s Bumrah gave massive damage, getting a hat-trick by the final over to defeat Afghanistan by 11 runs.
Mujeeb, Rashid, and Muhammad Nabi gave India a nose-dive and made a Sri Lanka style comeback playing out the wristspinners of India in a chase of 225. But Bumrah bounced both the batsmen in a double-wicket batsman on slower Hampshire Bowl track.
Afghanistan had 104 for 4 at this point where the asking rate shot above six. Nabi followed the boundary fearlessly. However, Shami and Bumrah ensured that India remains unbeaten in the tournament, and the victory of India was all from the virtues of Shami.
Chahal and Pandya played their hearts out, putting away the chase from Afghanistan to reach. Pandya was swiped away for fours back-to-back in the second over, but he gave outstanding performance in the next over by hitting harder and scaring Afghanistan.
Dhoni’s Trouble
Dhoni was found unable to rotate stroke in the mid overs.
He labored his way to28 off 52. It was typical of him to take deep hoping to make a strong end, but it didn’t happen for the matter of time. In so, it left the team in trouble. Dhoni came in 122 for 3 in the 27th over and soon it became 135 for 4 in 31st over. He shut shop after Kholi’s out.
Afghanistan played the classic spin choke during the entire batting, but on Dhoni especially. The initial 26 balls for him were all from spinners and he merely managed eight runs. The smacked the call for four that he got from a medium pacer.
Out of 52, in fact, only 9 balls were of medium pace for Dhoni. He made 16 off 9 with them and managed only 12 off 43 from the spinners. Dhoni gave in as much as 33 dots.
Afghanistan wasn’t less clever at all in their strategy, having six fielders for Dhoni. His tough hands didn’t give him a chance to rotate as the situation didn’t allow him to attack.
When Dhoni and Pandya fell, Jadhav re-calibrated the attempt for batting out the overs. He made a 66-ball 50 in the last over, however, he holed out off the last ball that gave some hope to Afghanistan. Muhammad Nabi raised it more, but India seemed not to back off and surprised them with their sixth defeat by 11 runs.
