11 October, New Delhi
Afghanistan reached 272 for eight in their World Cup match against India on Wednesday thanks to the tenacious 80 of Hasmatullah Shahidi and the courageous 62 of the young Azmatullah Omarazai.
Afghanistan’s effort with the bat was significantly better than what they had managed in their tournament opener against Bangladesh, thanks in large part to the leadership of captain Shahidi.
His 121-run partnership with 23-year-old Omarzai for the fourth wicket helped Afghanistan score a respectable total..
Afghanistan was poised to get close to 300 runs at 211, or four in 40 overs, but India’s bowlers performed a good job of controlling the run flow. The home team’s most effective bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, finished with 4 for 39 in 10 overs after contributing in both the powerplay and the dying overs. This represents Bumrah’s finest World Cup performance stats.
Kuldeep Yadav finished with excellent figures of one for 40 in 10 overs despite the fact that the ball did not spin much.
Given the favorable batting conditions at Feroz Shah Kotla, India would anticipate being able to easily reach the objective.
Afghanistan’s inaugural Powerplay, in which they went 48 for 1, didn’t have the best of starts.
Bumrah’s opening four-over period saw him get the ball to talk, but Mohammed Siraj let up 28 runs off his first 24 deliveries. In the end, Siraj let up 76 runs in his nine overs.
Siraj’s strategy of repeatedly hitting the stumps did not succeed as the opening pair of Ibrahim Zadran (22) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (21) gathered five boundaries off him.
With a short ball on the off-stump that straightened slightly to knock the outside edge off Zadran’s bat, Bumrah made the crucial breakthrough.
Shahdi and Omarzai were placed in the middle after Gurbaz and Rahmat Shah (16) fell in a gap of three balls.
While Shahidi took a backseat, the much younger Omarzai, who had been elevated in the pecking order, located the peculiar barrier.
The best part of Omarzai’s innings was how easily he handled the Indian spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja. In the 25th over, he dismissed Kuldeep by hitting him for two sixes, one on each side of the straight boundary.
In the 34th over, after picking the Indian spinner’s incorrect delivery, he hit his third six off of him over long on.
On the other hand, Shahidi excelled at cutting against pacers, and his signature move was the ramp off Hardik Pandya.
Although Rashid Khan did deliver a few sharp hits in the closing stages, Afghanistan only scored 61 runs with the loss of four wickets in the final 10 overs.
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In the 34th over, after picking the Indian spinner’s incorrect delivery, he hit his third six off of him over long on.
On the other hand, Shahidi excelled at cutting against pacers, and his signature move was the ramp off Hardik Pandya.
Although Rashid Khan did deliver a few sharp hits in the closing stages, Afghanistan only scored 61 runs with the loss of four wickets in the final 10 overs.
It surpassed Shahidi’s previous World Cup record of 76 against England at Old Trafford to become his fourth-highest ODI score.
In the first nine games of this World Cup, there had been two similar incidents. When facing Roelof van der Merwe’s left-arm spin during Pakistan’s 81-run victory over the Netherlands, Saud Shakeel spotted an additional guy in the deep. After chipping the no-ball for four over midwicket and pulling the free hit for six, he informed the umpires.
Anil Kumble claimed that Shahidi’s awareness and attention to detail were exhibited by the occurrence. Cricket is smart, according to Kumble. It is awareness of the field and what you’re doing, and that truly demonstrates that Hashmatullah was there on the dot, looking at the fielders for every ball. He seized the opportunity as soon as he realized that.