Swashbuckling opener and left-hander Abhishek Sharma dazzled with the bat as he scored a majestic 3rd T20I ton and destroyed Afghanistan in New Delhi. Abhishek Sharma was in a rampaging mood and was ably supported by Sanju Samson as the duo put on 142 for the first wicket inside 10 overs and 100 of them inside 6 overs of power play. Afghanistan came back well despite a ton from Abhishek and a fifty from Sanju Samson, to keep India down to 221/7 in 20 overs.
In reply, Afghanistan were blown away by India as an all-round bowling display led by a 3-wicket haul from Nitish Kumar Reddy and Ravi Bishnoi, alongside a couple of wickets for Axar Patel, bundled Afghanistan out for 94 in 14.1 overs. No real batting display by the Afghan batters. India won this contest by 127 runs to seal the series 3-0 and complete the whitewash.
Abhishek Sharma’s blazing 3rd T20I ton powers India to 221/7 in 20 overs
Put into bat first, keeper batter Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma came out to open the batting for India while Fazalhaq Farooqi had the ball in hand for Afghanistan. After playing out the opening over calmly, the Indian openers switched gears very quickly, as the southpaw Abhishek in particular was in the zone. It was the Abhishek Sharma show as he dazzled under the lights in New Delhi. Sanju played his part and hit a few big hits here and there, but it was the Abhishek Sharma show.
Abhishek reached his fifty in just 16 balls and was on 76* off 22 balls when the power play got over. India amassed 100/0 in 6 overs of power play. Afghanistan were playing catch-up from that moment. Abhishek continued his merry ways, but Samson was playing it smartly out there. Abhishek reached his 3rd T20I ton off just 30 balls. The opening duo added 142 runs inside 10 overs before Abhishek was the first one to depart for 108 off 34 balls with 9 fours and 11 sixes to his name to Rashid Khan, where a review was wasted by Abhishek and India. Tilak Varma came out to bat next.
India were 142/1 in 10 overs and looked set for a huge score. But the Afghans did not give up and slowly started to crawl their way back into the game. Sanju and Tilak added just 10 runs for the second wicket before Tilak was run out for 2 off 5 balls by Rashid Khan. Captain Shreyas Iyer came out to bat next. Sanju completed his half-century off 34 balls. Sanju and Shreyas added 12 runs for the 3rd wicket before Sanju fell for 50 off 35 balls with 2 fours and 4 sixes to his name to Azmatullah Omarzai as Rashid Khan plucked out a stunner at long-off. Shivam Dube came out to bat next.
Shreyas and Dube tried to forge some sort of a partnership as Dube hit a few lusty blows and Shreyas spent some time in the middle. The duo added 22 runs for the 4th wicket before Dube was dismissed for 14 off 10 balls with one four and one six to his name to Omarzai, with Rashid picking another good catch. Ishan Kishan came out to bat next and got off the mark with a boundary.
Shreyas and Ishan added 19 runs for the fifth wicket before Ishan fell for 10 off 8 balls with one four to his name as he was run out by keeper batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Nitish Kumar Reddy came out to bat next. Just one run was added to the score before Nitish fell for 1 off 4 balls to Abdullah Ahmadzai. Axar Patel came out to bat next. Shreyas and Axar tried to end the innings on a high and added 12 runs for the 7th wicket before captain Shreyas fell for 29 off 20 balls with 2 sixes to his name, before being run out by captain Ibrahim Zadran.
Ravi Bishnoi came out to bat next with 2 balls left in the innings. The duo managed to score 3 runs off the last 2 balls, all going to Axar Patel as India were restricted to 221/7 in 20 overs with 2 extras given by the fielding side. Axar remained unbeaten on 5 off 4 balls while Ravi Bishnoi was unbeaten on 0 off 0 balls.
The Afghanistan bowlers came back well in the backend of the innings after the Abhishek Sharma onslaught. Azmatullah Omarzai finished with 2/27 in 3 overs. Rashid Khan finished with 1/43 in 4 overs. Abdullah Ahmadzai finished with 1/38 in 4 overs. Fazalhaq Farooqi finished with 0/39 in 4 overs. Mujeeb Ur Rahman finished with 0/45 in 4 overs. Mohammad Nabi finished with an over for 29 runs. There were 4 run-outs in the innings. This meant that the target for Afghanistan was 222 runs off 20 overs for their maiden win against India.
All-Round India, led by Nitish Kumar Reddy, skittled Afghanistan out for 94 in 14.1 overs
Chasing 222 runs for an unlikely win, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, the keeper-batter, opened the batting with captain Ibrahim Zadran while Nitish Kumar Reddy had the ball in hand for India. The Afghan openers started positively and tried to show some fight out there. The opening duo added 31 runs for the first wicket inside 3 overs before Gurbaz fell for 15 off 11 balls with 3 fours to his name, clean bowled by Axar Patel. Sediqullah Atal came out to bat next.
Just 2 runs were added to the tally before Atal fell for 1 off 3 balls to Axar, who had two in the over. Darwish Rasooli came out to bat next. Just 6 runs were added to the tally before Rasooli fell for a golden duck to Jasprit Bumrah, who cleaned him up. Azmatullah Omarzai came out to bat next. The duo added another 8 runs for the 4th wicket before captain Ibrahim departed for 25 off 16 balls with 4 fours and one six to his name to Yash Thakur. Afghanistan lost 4 inside the power play.
Noor ul Rahman came out to bat next. The duo had a mountain to climb now and still tried to forge a partnership. The duo added 23 runs for the 5th wicket before Noor fell for 11 off 15 balls with 2 fours to his name to Ravi Bishnoi. Mohammad Nabi came out to bat next as the Afghans lost half their side for 70 runs in 8.5 overs. Nabi and Omarzai added 11 runs for the 6th wicket before Nabi fell for 8 off 9 balls with one four to his name to Nitish Kumar Reddy, who cleaned him up. Rashid Khan came out to bat next.
Just one run was added to the score before Omarzai fell for 17 off 13 balls with one four and one six to his name to Nitish Kumar Reddy. Mujeeb Ur Rahman came out to bat next. The score stayed at 82 when Mujeeb was dismissed for a golden duck by Reddy, who cleaned him up as well. Abdullah Ahmadzai came out to bat next. Rashid tried to play his shots and added 7 runs with Ahmadzai for the 9th wicket before Rashid fell for 6 off 5 balls with a boundary to his name to Ravi Bishnoi, who cleaned him up as well.
Fazalhaq Farooqi came out to bat next. The last wicket pair added 5 runs for the last wicket before Ahmadzai was the last man to be dismissed for 6 off 8 balls with one four to his name to Bishnoi yet again. Farooqi was unbeaten on 0 off 2 balls as Afghanistan were bundled out for 94 in 14.1 overs. 5 extras were given by India.
India bowled really well in the end. Nitish Kumar Reddy was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/25 in 4 overs. Ravi Bishnoi supported him well with figures of 3/26 in 3.1 overs. Axar Patel started things off with figures of 2/9 in 3 overs. Jasprit Bumrah finished with 1/16 in 2 overs. Yash Thakur finished with 1/17 in 2 overs. All the Indian bowlers picked up a wicket as India won this match by a massive 127 runs to clean sweep the series 3-0. Abhishek Sharma was awarded the Player of the Match and Player of the Series Award.
So, with this, the Friendship Cup between Afghanistan and India came to an end with India winning the series 3-0. India will next face West Indies in ODIs and a T20I series in India, while one batch of players goes to Japan for the Asian Games, which will be in the T20 format. So, lots to look forward to for the Men in Blue, while for the Afghans, it’s back to the drawing board, and they will go to the UAE to host Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in multiple series assignments.
A lot of action to look forward to for both teams in this white-ball format.
Also Read: AFG vs IND: Abhishek Sharma’s Brutal 3rd T20I Ton Powers India Past 220