Picture : BCCI / X
Talented Shivam Dube smashed an entertaining half-century to power India to an emphatic six-wicket win over Afghanistan in the first T20 International in Mohali.
India rallied after a couple of early wickets to overhaul the target comfortably in 17.3 overs. Dube (60 not out from 40 balls), playing his first T20 since the Asian Games, and Tilak Varma (26 off 22) shared a 44-run stand off 29 balls to give Indian innings momentum after losing the openers inside four overs.
India Skipper Rohit Sharma, back in India’s T20 team after 14 months made a horror return with run-out on 0. Rohit and Shubman Gill (23) got involved in an avoidable mix-up . The usually calm and cool Rohit did not hide his anger on this occasion as Gill did not pay heed to his call for a quick single.
Gill was not able to stay for long but Varma and Dube were able to take the innings forward and India did not look back from there on.
Dube, who is seen as a back-up to injury prone Hardik Pandya, used his long levers efficiently and his disdainful drives on the off side stood out. He ended the game in style with a straight six and four in the fine leg region.
Jitesh Sharma (31 off 20) also gave a good account of himself before Rinku Singh (16 not out off 9) joined Dube in the middle and took the team home.
Earlier, Put into bat, Afghanistan skipper Ibrahim Zadran (25 off 22 balls) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (23 off 28) put 50 runs in eight overs for the opening wicket.
Later seasoned Mohammad Nabi rallied Afghanistan with a few lusty blows at the end as he top-scored with a quickfire 42 from 27 balls and helped Afghanistan reach a competitive total of 158/ 5 .
The Afghan innings got momentum thanks to the a lively 68-run partnership off 43 balls between the seasoned Mohammad Nabi (42 off 27) and youthful Azmatullah Omarzai (29 off 22)
For India , Axar Patel and Mukesh Kumar picked up two wickets as India’s bowlers did well to restrict Afghanistan .
