Player of the Match
Player of the Match
2664dThe Report by Sidharth Monga

Afghanistan give India scare but run out of gas

Bubbling with enthusiasm and energy, Afghanistan gave India a scare with the ball and a half with the bat, but 20 overs proved to be too long a time for them to sustain that quality and keenness

Match Centre

Statistics

Best performances - Batsmen

V Kohli
V Kohli
50(39) 4x4 - 2x6
Control %87%
  • Productive Shot
  • off side drive on front foot
  • 26 runs
  • 4x4 - 1x6
0 0 0 1 12 16 11 10
SK Raina
SK Raina
38(33) 6x4 - 0x6
Control %70%
  • Productive Shot
  • off side drive on front foot
  • 12 runs
  • 1x4 - 0x6
0 0 6 1 13 5 5 8

Best performances - Bowlers

L Balaji
O3.3
M0
R19
W3
Eco5.42
RHB
OFFLEG
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF
Yuvraj Singh
Yuvraj Singh
O4
M0
R24
W3
Eco6
RHB
OFFLEG
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH

Match Details

Toss

Afghanistan , elected to field first

Player Of The Match

Match number

Season

Hours of play (local time)

19.30 start, First Session 19.30-20.50, Interval 20.50-21.10, Second Session 21.10-22.30

Match days

19 September 2012 - night match (20-over match)

TV Umpires

Reserve Umpire

Match Referee

Points

India 2, Afghanistan 0

Scorer: Gopi Rangarajan | Commentator: Siddarth Ravindran

As Zubair says: "What if the catches had been taken? What if so many wides had not been bowled? Little more discipline would have taken them through,but a great fight nevertheless..Beware England."

It's been immensely entertaining stuff from Afghanistan. The new-ball bowlers tested India with their pace and bounce, and a much-hyped batting order could only reach 159, thanks to the run-machine Virat Kohli. The catching from Afghanistan was appalling though, putting down four (or was it five) chances. Afghanistan's batsmen may not have textbook technique, but merrily threw the bat around, and pulled off some breath-taking hits but Yuvraj's double-strike in the 12th over sucked the momentum out of the chase.

Arun: "Well played by Afghanistan. But the whole thing can be argued in another way, the fearless way to go with the match obviously helped them play better. India on the other hand, had to be careful to avoid getting embarrassed."

Presentation ceremony:
Nawroz Mangal: "It was a good game for the boys, we could have done better, shot selection was a bit poor, that was why we have lost the game. We could have done better in the field, but we are satisfied we restricted the mighty Indian batting to 160."

MS Dhoni: "This format balances both teams, if one of the opposition batsman or bowler have a great day, it could change the result. A good performance but not a great performance from us. There are a lot of areas we have to improve on to be honest. People talk a lot about five bowlers, but what matters is on the day how they bowl, whether they are a part-timer or a specialist."

Man of the Match is Virat Kohli: "Always good to get a start, good to start on a winning note. Always tough to play against a team with nothing to lose. They were in a situation where they could try a lot of things, we had to be more careful."

Here's Sid Monga's match report. There'll be more from our guys at the ground shortly. For the moment, though, that's it from us at ESPNcricinfo. Good night, and thanks for all the mails.

19.3
W
Balaji to Dawlat Zadran, OUT, game over, Balaji finishes it off with a yorker, Afghanistan lose but they have not been disgraced, the first match of the tournament which wasn't completely one-sided

Dawlat Zadran b Balaji 8 (9m 5b 2x4 0x6) SR: 160

19.2
W
Balaji to Gulbadin Naib, OUT, nine down now for Afghanistan, Naib tries to send the ball into orbit, sends it only as far as Raina at mid-off, it was a short ball from Balaji again

Gulbadin Naib c Raina b Balaji 5 (23m 14b 0x4 0x6) SR: 35.71

19.1
0
Balaji to Gulbadin Naib, no run, a bouncer to start, batsman looks to pull but can't connect

END OF OVER:
19 | 10 Runs | AFG: 136/8 (24 runs required from 6 balls, RR: 7.15, RRR: 24.00)

  • Dawlat Zadran8 (4b)
  • Gulbadin Naib5 (12b)
  • Irfan Pathan4-0-29-1
  • Lakshmipathy Balaji3-0-19-1
18.6
4
Pathan to Dawlat Zadran, FOUR, a slower ball, full and outside leg, the bastman skips away beyond leg stump and murders that to the midwicket boundary, 24 needed now off the final over
18.5
4
Pathan to Dawlat Zadran, FOUR, pitched up and that is crashed through extra cover, powerful hit that, 28 off 7 now
18.4
0
Pathan to Dawlat Zadran, no run, a bouncer from Irfan, scares the No. 10 batsman, who waves his bat at it and misses

Afghanistan 2nd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st26Nawroz MangalMohammad Shahzad
2nd26Nawroz MangalKarim Sadiq
3rd23Karim SadiqAsghar Stanikzai
4th0Mohammad NabiAsghar Stanikzai
5th1Mohammad NabiSamiullah Shinwari
6th24Mohammad NabiShafiqullah
7th19Mohammad NabiGulbadin Naib
8th6Gulbadin NaibNajibullah Zadran
9th11Gulbadin NaibDawlat Zadran
10th0Shapoor ZadranDawlat Zadran

ICC Men's T20 World Cup

Group 1
TeamMWLPTNRR
SL33060.998
WI3214-0.375
ENG3122-0.397
NZ3030-0.169
Group 2
TeamMWLPTNRR
AUS32140.464
PAK32140.273
IND3214-0.274
SA3030-0.421
Group A
TeamMWLPTNRR
IND22042.825
ENG21120.65
AFG2020-3.475
Group B
TeamMWLPTNRR
AUS22042.184
WI2011-1.855
IRE2011-2.092
Group C
TeamMWLPTNRR
SA22043.598
SL21121.852
ZIM2020-3.624
Group D
TeamMWLPTNRR
PAK22040.706
NZ21121.15
BAN2020-1.868