New Delhi: Arshdeep Singh choked Afghanistan with relentless accuracy and a slew of variations while Abhishek Sharma tightened the noose with a brutal 84 as India hardly broke a sweat in their seven-wicket victory in the opening T20I in New Delhi Sunday.
Arshdeep set the platform with superb figures of 3 for 19 which included 16 dot deliveries out of the 24 legal ones that he sent down, helping India restrict the Afghans to 156 for 8.
The chase turned out to be a walk in the park as Abhishek hit sixes for fun, seven in all in his 32-ball-knock, with India completing the chase in 13.4 overs to go 1-0 up in the three-match series.
If there were any doubts about Abhishek’s poor form, he laid them to rest with some lusty hits which enthralled the Sunday gathering at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium.
He added 121 runs for the second wicket with in-form Ishan Kishan (42 off 33 balls) after Sanju Samson (10) departed early on a placid track that didn’t have any demons.
Abhishek started with a lofted six over covers off Fazalhaq Farooqi and then another over long-off with the unfortunate bowler being Azmatullah Omarzai. The third six off Farooqi was hammered over mid-wicket as there was no resistance from the Afghans.
Abhishek’s 12th T20I fifty came in just 22 balls but more importantly after six games where he couldn’t cross the 20-run mark. Kishan also gained in confidence as he hooked Farooqi for a six.
By the time the spinners came, Abhishek had taken charge as Noor Ahmed got some rough treatment for losing his length.
Apart from seven sixes, Abhishek also got seven boundaries and when he was finally dismissed, India needed only 17 to win .
Earlier, Jasprit Bumrah bowled some sharp deliveries but it was Arshdeep who stole the show after Shreyas Iyer opted to field.
The two spinners Varun Chakravarthy (1/16 in 4 overs) and Axar Patel (1/27 in 4 overs) controlled the proceedings till the first 10 overs before Omarzai (64 no off 44 balls) and Mohammed Nabi (33 off 27 balls) added 83 runs for the sixth wicket to help the total past the 150-run mark.
Bumrah (1/26 in 4 overs) bowled at full tilt with 16 dots as he removed former Kolkata Knight Riders star Rahmanullah Gurbaz (0) with a delivery that kicked up and he edged it to Abhishek Sharma, who took a smart low catch at first slip.
At the other end, Arshdeep used variations and change of pace to good effect to initiate breakthroughs at crucial junctures.
Ibrahim Zadran (13) and Sediqullah Atal (11) played a few shots before an horrible mix-up saw the back of the Afghan skipper.
Arshdeep, who didn’t let the Afghan batters chance their arms bowled a wide yorker which Atal tried to dig out and Bumrah standing at ‘fly’ slip took an easy catch.
Gulbadin Naib (2) played an atrocious inside out shot off Axar to be caught by Nitish Reddy. Varun, who kept attacking the stumps relentlessly then breached Darwish Rasooli’s (2) defence to make it 43 for 5 in 7 overs.
But credit to Omarzai that he counter-attacked, picking up the weak link of the Indian attack — Nitish — for some rough treatment.
It was Arshdeep, coming for his second spell, clean bowled the dangerous Nabi after being hit for a six.
Once Nabi was gone, there was another mini-collapse.
Rashid Khan (1 off 10 balls) simply couldn’t get going against Bumrah and Arshdeep at the death and was holed out in the deep.
It was Omarzai, who blasted Shivam Dube for a couple of sixes as 21 runs came off the final over to ensure a 150-plus total for the ‘home’ team.
