India stunned Afghanistan with an ease of eight wickets, helped by the staggering ton of skipper Rohit Sharma. Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi expressed they were short of runs on the batting surface of Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi. Hashmatullah Shahidi rues the fact that the batters couldn’t capitalize on the starts.
Defending only 273 on the run-fest in Delhi, Afghanistan could not take wickets at the start as Indian openers took the game far from the bowling team. Rohit Sharma just outplayed with his 31-ton in the ODI format. Virat Kohli also endorses victory with his half-century.
Afghan young openers started off the inning pretty well while batting first; they looked good, but Indian starter Jasprit Bumrah broke the partnership. Afghanistan lost wickets in clusters and were on the backfoot. Skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (82) and Azmatullah Omarzai (62) had a stunning partnership to reach a decent total of 272.
India had a flourishing start as Rohit Sharma was on the field and hitting boundaries. Indian batters never let Aghan bowlers have any window for a comeback. Rohit Sharma bagged 31 hundred, and Virat Kohli also contributed with a beautiful half century. Rashid Khan picked up only two wickets for Afghanistan. For India, Jasprit Bumrah took four wickets and pushed the batting team on the backfoot. At the end, India pocketed a comfortable victory.
We will learn from our mistakes and work on them- Hashmatullah Shahidi
In the post-match presentation, Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi expressed the need for a few more runs for a strong Indian batting line-up. Shahidi pointed out that the surface was good for batters and wanted to put pressure on the opposition.
“We had in mind that India’s batting lineup is so long; 300 was in our mind, but unfortunately, we lost too many wickets. The surface was good for bats. We wanted to score more runs and put pressure on the opposition,” said Hashmatullah Shahidi.
“Back-to-back wickets were the reason we did not score big runs. After losing 3 wickets, I was talking to Azmatullah: Don’t worry about dots; we will convert later on. Our aim was to build a partnership. We have seven more games left, and we look forward to those games. Hopefully, we will learn from our mistakes and work on them,” he added.