Dubai :India, led by stand in skipper KL Rahul, end their Asia Cup campaign with a convincing win over Afghanistan by 101 runs at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, in the super 4 clash.
Chasing a mammoth total of 213, Afghanistan top order perished in the spell of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who picked up a 5-fer, breaking the backbone of Afghanistan. Although Ibrahim Zadran played as a lone warrior, a brave knock of 64*(59), he didn’t get any support from the other end, eventually with tidy bowling India clinched the game by a huge margin of 101 runs.
Earlier, in the 1st innings, skipper KL Rahul & Virat Kohli opened the innings, and brutalized Afghanistan bowlers all over the park, while after an opening stand of 119 , KL Rahul got dismissed on 62(41), followed by Surya Kumar Yadav, Virat Kohli continued his fireworks from the other end. This match , though was a dead rubber, was made special, historic in the heart of Cricket fans as Virat Kohli, nearly after 2.5 years scored his 71st International Century, his 1st in T20I, and became the 3rd Indian Batsman after Rohit Sharma & Suresh Raina to score 100s in all 3 formats. With his aggressive 122*(61), India reached a total of 212 runs in 20 overs, which Afghanistan couldn’t chase. Virat Kohli was the man of the match for his amazing knock.
BRIEF SCORECARD
1ST INNINGS
INDIA : 212-2(20)
Virat Kohli : 122* (61)
KL Rahul : 62(41)
AFGHANISTAN
Fareed Ahmad : 2/57
2ND INNINGS
AFGHANISTAN :111-8(20)
Ibrahim Zadran : 64(59)
INDIA
Bhuvneshwar Kumar : 5/4
