Clinical India cross Afghan hurdle

St Lucia, May 1: India beat Afghanistan by seven wickets in the teams’ World Twenty20 opener here on Saturday but the outsiders were far from disgraced on their tournament debut.

Set 116 for victory, India finished on 116/3 with more than five overs to spare.

Earlier, Afghanistan’s 115/8 featured an impressive 50 (48 balls) from opener Noor Ali, well supported in a fourth-wicket stand of 68 by the hard-hitting Ashgar Stanikzai, whose 30 featured three sixes.

Ashish Nehra led the Indian attack with three wickets for 19 runs, his pace and bounce proving too much for several batsmen.

Murali Vijay, making his Twenty20 debut in place of injured opening batsman Virender Sehwag, made 48 before holing out when Indian were in sight of victory.

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to field. The former champions did not have long to wait for wickets, Karim Sadiq caught down the legside by wicketkeeper Dhoni off left-arm quick Nehra for a four ball nought as he tried to pull a short ball.

But Ali gave Afghan fans something to cheer by leg-glancing the first four of the innings, off Praveen Kumar in the third over.

However, Mohammad Shahzad fell in similar fashion to Sadiq and Afghanistan captain Nowroz Mangal fell cheaply to Ravindra Jadeja.

Stanikzai though gave Ali good support and smote some impressive boundaries, including a six over midwicket off Harbhajan Singh.

The duo’s stand was ended when Ali, whose fifty came off 47 balls with four fours, gave the returning Nehra a third wicket when he too failed with a pull, Dhoni once more taking the catch.

Then 97/4 became 97/5 when Stanikzai, whose runs came from just 33 balls, holed out to midwicket off Kumar. Next ball Mohammad Nabi skied Kumar to Dhoni.

But Afghanistan got past the hundred mark — a fair achievement in itself and all the more impressive given that less than two years ago they were playing in Division Five of the World Cricket League.

“Their middle order batting was really good. The wicket was on the slower side. The slower bowlers were bound to get a bit of bowling,” Dhoni said after the match.

Scoreboard

afghanistan

Noor Ali c Dhoni b Nehra 50, Karim Sadiq c Dhoni b Nehra 0, Mohd Shahzad c Dhoni b Nehra 6, Nowroz Mangal c Gambhir b Jadeja 5, Asghar Stanikzai c Khan b Kumar 30, Mohd Nabi c Dhoni b Kumar 0, Raees Adhmadzai n.o. 5, Samiullah Shenwari run out 7, Hamid Hassan c Nehra b Khan 6, Shapoor Zadran n.o. 0,
extras (lb-3, w-3) 6
Total (in 20 overs) 115/8
FoW: 1-6, 2-22, 3-29, 4-97, 5-97, 6-97, 7-107, 8-114.
Bowling: P. Kumar 3-0-14-2, A. Nehra 4-0-19-3, Z. Khan 3-0-24-1, R. Jadeja 4-1-15-1, Yuvraj 1-0-4-0, Harbhajan 4-0-24-0, Y. Pathan 1-0-12-0.
india

Gautam Gambhir c Mohd Nabi b Dawlat Ahmadzai 4, Murali Vijay c Shapoor Zadran b Hamid Hassan 48, Suresh Raina lbw Shenwari 18, Yuvraj Singh n.o. 23, M.S. Dhoni n.o. 15
Extras (lb-1, w-3, nb-4) 8
Total (in 14.5 overs) 116/3
FoW: 1-19, 2-46, 3-101.
Bowling:Ahmadzai 2-0-21-1 (1nb), Zadran 2-0-6-0 (1w), Nabi 3-0-33-0 (1nb), Shenwari 2-0-11-1 (1w), Sadiq 2-0-22-0 (2nb, 1w), Hassan 3-0-8-1, Mangal 0.5-0-14-0