India vs Afghanistan: Quick flicks of the day

Shapoor Zardan exposed old wounds

India- 159/5 off 20 overs (Virat Kohli 50, Shapoor Zardan 2/33)

Afghanistan – 136 all-out off 19.3 overs (Mohammad Nabi 31, Yuvraj Singh 3/24)

Result: India win by 23 runs.

Afghanistan went down against India, although not without a valiant fight. Still, things could have been different. If India’s score of 159 off 20 overs was lacklustre, it could have been much worse had it not been for poor fielding by the minnows. If only the Afghan fielders had coordinated with their extremely disciplined bowlers.

Here, we take a look at some of the moments to cherish in this thoroughly enjoyable contest:

Opening woes continue

Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have been struggling since quite some time now. They have regularly failed in all conditions and in every form of the game. Yet this match against the youngest addition to international cricket should have been an easy walk for players of their calibre and experience. But a relatively unknown Shapoor Zadran dismissed both of them in successive overs.

Gambhir toyed with the pacer’s delivery which was just outside the off stump, and got an ugly inside edge onto his middle stump. Zadran’s show of ebullience after the dismissal brought fond memories of Shoaib Akthar — that says a lot.

Sehwag’s feet cemented firmly on the ground, refused to agree with his bat-wielding hands. Outside the off stump again, and Sehwag graciously edged one to Mohammad Shahzad, the wicket-keeper.

Yuvi announces his arrival

All eyes were on him. The fighter, the champion, making a surreal comeback. It might not have happened with the bat as he must have wished, yet he announced his arrival cinematically.

After playing a wide and three dot balls from India’s top-order tormentor Zadran, Yuvraj finally decided to give it a go. It seemed as if he was waiting for it. Yuvraj swung his willow in his trademark, effortless style over the bowler’s head. The ball landed near the sightscreen. The stadium roared in elation.

Yuvraj Singh scripts a cinematic comeback

Shahzad does a Dhoni

The Afghans are a brave troop, as if out of history books. Mohammad Shahzad, who opened batting with his captain, made his intentions clear from the very first ball, when he launched wildly to Zaheer Khan’s very first delivery and came perilously close to collecting a boundary. The duo continued to irritate India with some uncanny shots. Especially brutal to Zaheer, the stoutly built batsman brought chuckles to many faces when he emulated a trademark shot from the Indian captain’s repertoire. The helicopter must have even amused the Indian captain.

Vintage Yuvraj does it again

Yuvraj looks overweight, tired and a man trying desperately to win back his love. He took a fine catch and removed doubts, if there were any, about his bucket-like hands catching rust. He then did what we expect from our heroes.

At 52/1 after 7 overs, Afghanistan looked settled to achieve a miracle. Dhoni handed the ball over to the magic arms, which had rescued him on many occasions during India’s victorious World Cup campaign. Afghan captain Nawroz Mongol, who was looking dangerous, missed a delivery headed towards the leg stump. He was struck leg-before and Yuvraj got a wicket off his very first ball. Later, he added two more wickets to his tally and would have been my choice for the man-of-the-match had it not been such a low-scoring match.