Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh starred with 3 wickets each as India defeated Afghanistan by 47 runs and maintained their unbeaten record in the tournament.
Suryakumar Yadav hit a gritty 53 as Rashid Khan and Fazalhaq Farooqi took 3 wickets apiece for Afghanistan including the big scalps of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma as India posted 181/8.
India won the toss and opted to bat first in their Super-8 match on Thursday against Afghanistan in Group 1 at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados. India made one change with Kuldeep Yadav coming in for Mohammed Siraj while Afghanistan brought in Hazratullah Zazai for Karim Janat.
Rohit Sharma said, The last two years, we have come here and played some T20 games. We planned a little well. We adapted well to the conditions that were offered. We knew the class of our bowling line up will defend this. Everyone coming in and doing their job. That is something we keep talking about. Surya and Hardik’s partnership was a good one in the end. We know what Bumrah can do for us. It is important for us to use him smartly. He is the one who is ready to take the responsibility as well. Whereever he plays, he is always ready to take the responsibility. I got to assess the conditions. Looking at the opposition we are ready to make any changes. We thought three spinners would be good, we went for that. Going forward if needed, I am open to playing three seamers.
Rashid Khan said, That was a surface we thought we could chase 170-180. You just go there and how you play. Against bigger teams, we should be thinking we will have to chase such scores. Body is feeling well. I struggled a little in the IPL. I am hitting the areas consistently now. We have enjoyed everywhere we have played. We forget our own skills sometimes. If the conditions are there, we will look to use it.
Suryakumar Yadav, Player of the Match, said, I think there’s a lot of hardwork, the