Suryakumar Yadav smashed a fine half-century before India’s bowlers slammed the brakes on Afghanistan’s flamboyant shot-makers to romp to a 47-run win in the T20 World Cup on Thursday.
Suryakumar’s 53 was his 19th fifty in the format and helped India post a challenging 181-8 in their second round Super Eights opener.
Experienced fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah then combined with spin trio Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja to strangle Afghanistan, seen by many as dark horses for the title, who were dismissed for 134 off the last ball.
Rashid Khan improved his ordinary record against India before Suryakumar played like he only can to take his team to 181 for eight in a Super 8 fixture of the T20 World Cup here on Thursday.
After a grinding effort in his last innings, Suryakumar (53 off 28 ) was back to his nonchalant best and picked the boundaries at will on a track where the other batters struggled to get going.
The other notable contributions came from Rishabh Pant (20 off 11), who too found the boundaries from the word go and Hardik Pandya (32 off 24).
Virat Kohli (24 off 24) got into the double digits for the first time in this tournament but was dismissed just when he was getting set.
Rashid (3/26), who had not picked up a wicket against India prior to this game, struck in his first three overs to put pressure on the opposition.
India expectedly opted to bat at the Kensington Oval and from the way the ball held up on the pitch early one, it seemed playing through the line will be tough. Skipper Rohit Sharma (8) tried to push the scoring rate in the third over from Fazalhaq Farooqi (3/33) but was caught at mid-on after finding the toe end of his bat.
Rashid brought himself on right after powerplay, with India reaching 47 for one. The star spinner sent back the dangerous Pant in the seventh over. The southpaw once again was not afraid to employ the sweep and audacious reverse sweep against the spinners before eventually falling to Rashid.
After Kohli was caught at long-off in Rashid’s second over, India felt the heat. Suryarkumar eased the tension with a flurry of sweeps against Rashid before the spinner got his third scalp in the form of Shivam Dube (10), who was trapped in front after the ball turned back in sharply and crashed into his back leg.
Surya kept finding the big hits from the other end. He outrageously whipped a wide full toss from Azmatullah Omarzai to deep square-leg before a six and four off Farooqi took him to a well-made half-century.
After Surya’s departure, Hardik then got into the act and hammered the ball into the stands on a couple of occasions. His straight six off left-arm spinner Noor Ahmed was all brute power, almost shattering the window of the press box.
In the end, India did well to post their highest total at the historic venue.