Recent Match Report – India vs Afghanistan 2nd T20I 2023/24

Naib leads Afghanistan’s charge

Rahmanullah Gurbaz gave Afghanistan a quick start, hitting the first legal delivery of the first over for a four and the first one of the second for a six. But his stay was short-lived as he fell to Ravi Bishnoi for 14 off nine.

No. 3 Naib ensured Afghanistan did not lose their momentum. He hit back-to-back fours off Mukesh Kumar before topping it with 6, 4, 4 off Bishnoi in the next over. He ended the powerplay with yet another boundary, taking Afghanistan to 58 for 2 after six.

At the other end, Shivam Dube castled Azmatullah Omarzai with a back-of-the-hand slower ball. But Naib took a liking to him, hitting the medium-pacer for two sixes in his next over, the ninth. Between those two hits, he had a slice of luck as well, when Kohli, charging in from long-on, shelled a difficult low chance. Naib was on 41 then. He brought up his fifty shortly afterwards, off just 28 balls.

Axar applies the brakes

Introduced in the sixth over, he turned one past Ibrahim Zadran’s outside edge to hit the off stump. Then, in the 12th, he bowled one from well behind the popping crease, thus changing the length without a change in action, to have Naib caught at short midwicket. Bowling his four overs in a single spell, Axar finished with 2 for 17. Naib’s wicket put the brakes on the scoring rate – Afghanistan managed just 27 in five overs, from 12 to 16.

Afghanistan finish strongly

Najibullah Zadran was on 6 off 15 before he got stuck into Bishnoi. In the 17th over, he hit the legspinner for two sixes and a four. When he departed, Janat and Mujeeb took over and smashed Dube for 20 in the penultimate over of the innings. Despite Arshdeep Singh giving away only eight in the final over, which included four wickets (including two via run-outs), Afghanistan scored 55 in the last four.

Rohit-Kohli watch

Rohit was run out in the first T20I when Shubman Gill did not respond to his call for a quick single. Tonight, in his 150th T20I, his early dismissal owed less to misfortune. Facing his first ball, he moved towards the leg side in an attempt to pull Farooqi. He missed and Farooqi hit the top of off stump.

Kohli, who had missed the first game for personal reasons, opened his account by smashing Mujeeb over extra cover. In the same over, he swept a similar delivery to the deep midwicket fence. In all, he hit five fours in 16 balls. When he was caught at mid-off off Naveen-ul-Haq, the crowd was disappointed, but this might have been exactly the approach the team management wanted him to adopt.

The Jaiswal-Dube show

Jaiswal had kicked off India’s chase by cutting Farooqi to the point boundary. In the seamer’s next over, he hit a straight six before offering a return chance. Farooqi failed to hold onto it and then watched the next ball sailing over deep square leg for six more. Jaiswal was equally severe on Mujeeb, hitting him for a hat-trick of fours in the fifth over. At the end of the powerplay, India had raced to 69 for 2.

Dube took some time to get going. He was on a run-a-ball 7 but soon he was outpacing Jaiswal. It started with him launching Noor Ahmad over long-off before he clobbered Mohammad Nabi for three successive sixes. After ten overs, India’s required rate had come down to 5.70.

Jaiswal and Dube added 92 in just seven overs. By the time Jaiswal was out for 68 off 34, India needed only 19 off 45 balls. Jitesh Sharma fell for a second-ball duck before Dube, 63 not out off 32, and Rinku Singh took India over the line.

Hemant Brar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo