Southampton: Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami held their nerves in crunch situation and executed their plans perfectly in the death overs to help see-off Afghanistan resistance and eventually beta them beat by 11 runs in a nail-biting encounter at The Rose Bowl Stadium in Southampton.
Shami became the second Indian bowler in the history of World Cup to complete a hat-trick after Chetan Sharma achieved the feat in 1987 World Cup.
Indian batsmen failed to deliver for the first time in the tournament and finished the innings at 224/8.
Nail-biting finish
Needing 16-runs off the last over bowled by fast bowler Mohammed Shami, Afghanistan had Mohammad Nabi taking strike and the match was set for a thrilling finish. Nabi converted the first ball bowled by Shami into a full toss and scored a boundary and the target was reduced to 12 off 5 balls.
The next ball was a dot ball and 12 runs were needed off 4 balls. Off the third ball, Nabi, wanting to score a six over long-on was caught by Hardik Pandya for a well-made 52 and India came back into the game.
Shami struck twice in succession to remove Aftab Khan, bowled (213-9) and off the fifth ball bowled Mujeeb and completed a hat-trick and Afghanistan were bowled out for 213 runs. India won by a thrilling 11-run margin.
New Zealand head the points table with 11 points from six games. Australia is in the second position with 10 points from six games and India is in the third place with 9 points from five games. England is in the fourth place with eight points from six games. Afghanistan are at the bottom of the table without a points from their six games.
SCORES
India: 224 for 8 in 50 overs (Virat Kohli 67, Kedar Jadhav 52, K.L. Rahul 30, Vijay Shankar 29, M.S. Dhoni 28, Gulbadin Naib 2 for 51, Mohammad Nabi 2 for 33) bt Afghanistan: 213 in 49.5 overs (Mohammad Nabi 52, Rahmat Shah 36, Gulbadin Naib 27, Shahidi 21, Najibullah 21, Mohammed Shami 4 for 40, Jasprit Bumrah 2 for 39, Y. Chahal 2 for 36, Hardik Pandya 2 for 51); Player of the Match: Jasprit Bumrah.
This post was published on June 23, 2019 6:23 pm