Asia Cup 2018: 3 reasons why India couldn't win against Afghanistan

In a very special match for MS Dhoni against Afghanistan, India made as much as five changes to check their bench strength.

Dhoni was the captain of the team for this match. Dhoni became the first Indian captain to lead the team in 200 ODis.

Dhoni lost the toss and Afghanistan sent India to bowl first. In the first innings, Afghanistan's batting was led by Mohammad Shahzad's century.

At one point, he was scoring most of Afghanistan's runs as the other four batsmen in the top five failed miserably.

After Shahzad got out, Mohammad Nabi took over the innings and helped his side post a total of 252 with a 56-ball 64.

Indian openers gave India the perfect start and put together 110 runs for the first wicket. India's victory seemed certain, but after the fall of Ambati Rayudu, India lost wickets at regular intervals.

Slowly, India lost the grip over the match. India was required to make seven runs off Rashid Khan's bowling in the last over of the match. Ravindra Jadeja hits a four on the second ball of that over.

With just one run needed off two deliveries, Ravindra Jadeja got caught and he could not finish the game. This leads to the iconic tie for the Afghanistan Cricket team.

Here, we are going to look at the three reasons why India could not be able to win the match against Afghanistan:-

---

#1 Dropped catch of Mohammad Shahzad

Ambati Rayudu may not be a happy man today

Mohammad Shahzad single-handedly took away the match from the Indian team by scoring 124 off just 116 deliveries. But Afghanistan would have been in great trouble if his catch was taken by Ambati Rayudu.

In the ninth over of the match, Shahzad mistimed an outside off delivery of Siddarth Kaul. He did not get enough distance from the shot and the ball was going to Ambati Rayudu, who was at mid-off.

It seemed to be a wicket for India but Rayudu dropped the easy opportunity. Shahzad was playing on just 49 at that time.

If Rayudu had taken that catch, India could have bowled out Afghanistan for a small total and that could have changed the outcome of the match.

#2 Poor Umpiring and Waste of review

This was a complete waste of a review

India was in the driving seat till the 20th over, but in the third ball of 21st over of India's inning, Rashid Khan dismissed KL Rahul. Rahul challenged the Umpire's call after a long discussion with Dinesh Kartik.

But the review got wasted as Ball tracking showed three Reds. From that point in time, the game changed completely.

Dhoni was given out but the ball tracking showed it was a not out. Karthik also got out in the same manner.

If the review was not wasted then this could have saved both these batsmen and India could have easily chased down the target.

These two poor decisions also showed the questionable decisions made by the Umpires. Both these players should not have been given out and there was nothing that India could do.

#3 Afghanistan better skills at the death overs

Rashid Khan did it again

Despite two poor decisions and a waste of the review, India was on the right track to chase down the target.

But then, the skills of the Afghanistan bowlers came into the picture. They showed everybody how to bowl at the death overs.

Their captain too had done the right thing by keeping their best spinners for the last. He learned from their match against Pakistan and gave Rashid Khan an opportunity to bowl the last over of the match.

His tactics worked and Afghanistan restricted India from winning the match. Rashid successfully defended seven runs in the last over to tie the match.