T20 World Cup: Dominant India notch up first win against Afghanistan, keep qualification hopes alive

210 was always going to be a tough chase and Afghanistan just crumbled under the scoreboard pressure as the Indian team won their first game of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021. India won the game by 66 runs, which provided a booster shot to their NRR, which they need along with the wins. 

The Indian batters unleashed the fireworks as they clinched a massive 66-run victory over Afghanistan #INDvAFG report #T20WorldCup https://t.co/p6J2MZnwPL

— ICC (@ICC) November 3, 2021

India batted first after losing the loss again, so there was not much change in that but there was a change in approach and it worked wonders. Both the openers, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul took a couple of overs to get their eyes in and Afghan skipper Mohammad Nabi's decision of opening with spin didn't work as till the pacers came, they were set.

Rohit Sharma was the more aggressive of the two as he just took off and was particularly severe on pacer Naveen-ul-Haq, scoring two fours and one six off the 5th over of the innings bowled by him. Rahul, on the other hand, played the second fiddle and the accumulator. He kept rotating strike regularly and didn't let go of any boundary opportunity.

Rohit brought up his 23rd T20I fifty while KL Rahul notched up his 13th half-century as the opening partnership went past 100 and they just threw caution out of the window after that and ended up stitching a magnificent partnership of 140 runs in just 88 balls.

Rohit scored 74 runs off just 47 balls but India lost him and Rahul in the space of 11 balls.

Losing them in quick succession wasn't ideal, however, the Indian team sent their power hitters Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya went absolute berserk in the last five overs as they forged an unbeaten partnership of 63 runs off just 32 balls to help India post 210 runs, the highest score of this tournament.

INNINGS BREAK!

Solid performance with the bat from #TeamIndia! 

 from @ImRo45
 from @klrahul11
* from @hardikpandya7
* from @RishabhPant17

Over to our bowlers now.  #INDvAFG #T20WorldCup

Scorecard https://t.co/42045c5J05 pic.twitter.com/u8NugkurFh

— BCCI (@BCCI) November 3, 2021

210 was always going to be too much for Afghanistan because of the scoreboard pressure but for India, it was important that they just strangulate the opposition and win by a margin as huge as possible. Pacers and Ravichandran Ashwin didn't let the Afghan batters get off the hook at any point.

Mohammed Shami picked up three wickets while Ashwin bowled a magnificent spell of 2/14 as the Indian team eventually won by 66 runs, getting their NRR into positive. From -1.6 the NRR jumped up to +0.07 but they still need to win their remaining games by big margins to have a shot at the qualification spot.

Afghanistan, on the other hand, will have to beat New Zealand as their NRR is superior to both New Zealand and India.