India defeated Afghanistan 101–1 in a Super 4 match to finish their 2022 Asia Cup campaign. With the bat, Virat Kohli stood out, finally scoring a century after 1020 days with a stunning unbeaten 122-run innings. He aided India in scoring 212/2. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the show-stopper with the ball, taking 5/4 in his four overs while dismantling Afghanistan’s top order. India was able to limit Afghanistan to 111/8 thanks to his efforts.
- Virat Kohli hit his first T20I century. He needed 96 innings to finally break the duck.
- Virat Kohli scored his 71st international century with this score. With that, he tied Ricky Ponting for the record for most centuries.
- Virat Kohli’s most recent century occurred on November 23, 2019. He had to wait 1020 days before scoring once more.
- 3500: Virat Kohli also became just the second player in T20Is to reach that milestone. The other batsman is Rohit Sharma.
- Only the second Indian, Kohli, has smashed 100 sixes. With 172, Martin Guptill is first. With 171, Rohit is one hit behind.
- The highest T20I score by an Indian hitter is 122. Kohli beat Rohit Sharma’s 118-run record. Also, Kohli’s highest T20 score to date. His previous mark for RCB was 113.
- Virat Kohli too reached this milestone in international cricket, scoring 24,000 runs. On a significant record, he lags Rahul Dravid only a little.
- Virat Kohli has scored 71 international hundreds faster than anybody else (522). In 522 innings, it appeared. Sachin Tendulkar achieved 100 hundreds in 782 innings, compared to Ricky Ponting’s 668 innings.
- This is India’s second-largest winning margin in T20Is. In a 2018 match versus Ireland, India scored 143 points.
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar has the third-best bowling figure of any Indian, at 5/4. Yuzvendra Chahal’s 6/25 and Deepak Chahar’s 6/7 are in the lead.
- Out of 24 deliveries, Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled 20 dot balls. This is a dot ball percentage of 83%.
Team India fulfilled Sanjay Manjrekar’s pledge to produce a belter. India has nothing to lose after being eliminated from the Asia Cup. India made many adjustments at the start of the match, including resting Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya. KL Rahul and Virat Kohli made the first pitch. Despite a fresh starting combination, India got off to a strong start.
Virat Kohli appeared to be in rhythm and was motivated to hit as many runs as he could, despite Rahul’s initial struggles. He made his intentions clear by scoring 15 runs against Mujeeb Ur Rahman in the final over of the powerplay. He contributed 119 runs to the opening wicket partnership with KL Rahul. In just 33 balls, Kohli reached his 50, and KL Rahul quickly followed.
KL Rahul was out for 62 off 41 balls in the 13th over, but Virat Kohli was unstoppable on Thursday. Kohli destroyed Afghanistan’s bowling assault with 12 fours and 6 sixes. As Kohli pounded on, Mujeeb was the only bowler to give up less than 8. India scored 78 runs off the final five overs to reach 212/2 thanks to Kohli.
But the man of the moment was Virat Kohli. Since his previous century, 1020 days had passed. The last time he removed his helmet to accept applause was on November 23 when he faced Bangladesh in the Pink-ball Test at the Eden Gardens. He had all but forgotten how it tasted. However, the individual has improved greatly since taking a month off. He finished with an undefeated total of 122 off 61 balls. He needed 71 centuries to tie Ricky Ponting’s mark.
“I’ve learned a lot over the past 2.5 years. In a month, I will turn 34. Therefore, those irate festivities are no longer necessary. I was actually astonished. The last format I anticipated scoring in was this one. And I kissed my ring. One individual has helped me put things in perspective, which is why you can see me standing here. Anushka is that. This one hundred is also for our young daughter Vamika. Virat Kohli commented on his knock, “When you have someone next to you having chats putting things in perspective, as Anushka has been.
“I wasn’t in a dire situation when I returned. After six weeks off, I felt renewed. I became aware of my tiredness. Competition forbids it, but this respite allowed me to appreciate the game once again,” he continued.
Afghanistan had nothing left to lose after their heartbreaking loss to Pakistan in the last over. However, Mohammad Nabi & Co appeared exhausted and uninterested. They scarcely had any time to heal psychologically and physically and it showed. They made multiple misfields and lost two receptions on the field. With the ball first, they were all over the place, and then with the bat.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who received criticism for his lacklustre performance in the previous two games, answered back with T20 numbers of 5/4, a career high. Hazratullah Zazai and Rahmanullah Gurbaz reduced Afghanistan to half in his first over.
Karim Janat and Najibullah Zadran were dismissed by Bhuvneshwar in his second over, giving him his fourth wicket for only three runs. However, KL Rahul made a wise decision to keep going with Bhuvneshwar Kumar. With the exception of Ibrahim Zadran, the seasoned pacer cleaned off the top order by bowling 4 overs continuously. After 24 deliveries, Bhuvneshwar had 20 dot balls for a final score of 5/4.
Afghanistan crumbled like a house of cards as Ibrahim Zadran fought alone with an undefeated 59-ball 64. Indian spinners, though, were unable to get any blood from the pitch. Axar Patel was frugal, just making 0/24 on his four shots. Once more bowling a tight line, Ravichandran Ashwin dismissed Mujeeb Ur Rahman for 27 runs. Rashid Khan was eliminated by Deepak Hooda with his first ball. Afghanistan finished with a score of 111/8, so Dinesh Karthik even got to bowl for pleasure.
It was just my day, and I was bowling in the right spots. Unexpectedly, it did [swing]. Normally, the white ball doesn’t swing until three to four overs. Today, no matter where I bowled, I was getting wickets. The other matches revealed that there wasn’t much swing and bounce. After the game, Bhuvneshwar Kumar stated, “It’s been a wonderful tournament. If you look at the matchups, it’s excellent for us to be facing great teams like this coming into the World Cup.
| Super 4 Standings | |||||||
| Teams | Mat | Won | Lost | Tied | NR | Pts | NRR |
| Sri Lanka | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.351 |
| Pakistan | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.241 |
| India | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1.607 |
| Afghanistan | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2.006 |
Afghanistan Innings:
| Batsmen | R | B | 4S | 6S | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hazratullah Zazai | lbw b B Kumar | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Rahmanullah Gurbaz (WK) | b B Kumar | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Ibrahim Zadran | Not out | 64 | 59 | 4 | 2 | 108.47 |
| Karim Janat | c Virat Kohli b B Kumar | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Najibullah Zadran | lbw b B Kumar | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Mohammad Nabi (C) | lbw b Arshdeep Singh | 7 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Azmatullah Omarzai | c Dinesh Karthik b B Kumar | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 16.67 |
| Rashid Khan | c Axar Patel b Deepak Hooda | 15 | 19 | 2 | 0 | 78.95 |
| Mujeeb Ur Rahman | b Ravichandran Ashwin | 18 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 138.46 |
| Fareed Malik | Not out | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 20.00 |
| Extra | 3 (b 0, w 3, nb 0, lb 0) | |||||
| Total | 111/8 (20) | |||||
| Yet To Bat | Fazalhaq Farooqi |
| BOWLING | O | M | R | W | ECON |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 4 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 1.00 |
| Deepak Chahar | 4 | 0 | 28 | 0 | 7.00 |
| Arshdeep Singh | 2 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 3.50 |
| Axar Patel | 4 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 6.00 |
| Ravichandran Ashwin | 4 | 0 | 27 | 1 | 6.75 |
| Deepak Hooda | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3.00 |
| Dinesh Karthik | 1 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 18.00 |
| Fall Of Wickets | FOW | Over |
|---|---|---|
| Hazratullah Zazai | 1-0 | 0.4 |
| Rahmanullah Gurbaz | 2-1 | 0.6 |
| Karim Janat | 3-9 | 2.4 |
| Najibullah Zadran | 4-9 | 2.6 |
| Mohammad Nabi | 5-20 | 5.5 |
| Azmatullah Omarzai | 6-21 | 6.5 |
| Rashid Khan | 7-54 | 13.1 |
| Mujeeb Ur Rahman | 8-87 | 17.4 |
India LIVE Scorecard:
| Batsmen | R | B | 4S | 6S | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KL Rahul (C) | c Najibullah Zadran b Farid Malik | 62 | 41 | 6 | 2 | 151.22 |
| Virat Kohli | Not out | 122 | 61 | 12 | 6 | 200.00 |
| Suryakumar Yadav | b Farid Malik | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 300.00 |
| Rishabh Pant (WK) | Not out | 20 | 16 | 3 | 0 | 125.00 |
| Extra | 2 (b 0, w 2, nb 0, lb 0) | |||||
| Total | 212/2 (20) | |||||
| Yet To Bat | Dinesh Karthik, Deepak Hooda, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, DL Chahar, B Kumar, Arshdeep Singh |
| BOWLING | O | M | R | W | ECON |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fazalhaq Farooqi | 4 | 0 | 51 | 0 | 12.75 |
| Mujeeb Ur Rahman | 4 | 0 | 29 | 0 | 7.25 |
| Fareed Malik | 4 | 0 | 57 | 2 | 14.25 |
| Rashid Khan | 4 | 0 | 33 | 0 | 8.25 |
| Mohammad Nabi | 3 | 0 | 34 | 0 | 11.33 |
| Azmatullah Omarzai | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 8.00 |
India Playing XI: KL Rahul(c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh
Afghanistan Playing XI: Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi(c), Karim Janat, Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fareed Ahmad Malik, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Also read : Afghanistan fall as Ibrahim joins Najibullah, Nabi as Pakistan rule
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