Colombo: Comeback man Yuvraj Singh provided three crucial breakthroughs, but India were far from convincing as they launched their ICC World Twenty20 campaign with a scrappy 23-run victory over minnows Afghanistan in here on Wednesday.
Put into bat, it was Man-of-the-Match Virat Kohli’s half-century and a useful contribution of 38 from Suresh Raina, which helped India reach a decent target of 159 for five in 20 overs.
In reply, the Afghanistan batsmen showed patches of brilliance in their stroke-making, but their sheer inexperience saw them end all out for 136 in 19.3 overs.
The bravehearts from Afghanistan can hold their heads high, however, as they only went down after putting up stiff resistance against a scratchy Indian team.
After getting a wicket with his very first delivery, Yuvraj in his second spell provided back-to-back breakthroughs dismissing dangerous looking Karim Sadiq (26) and Asghar Stanikzai as Afghanistan, from a comfortable 75 for two, were suddenly left tottering at 75 for four and were never really back in the match after that.
It was Yuvraj and Ravichandran Ashwin, with figures of two for 20, who applied pressure under which the opposition batsmen finally caved in.
Laxmipathy Balaji finished it in the end with figures of three for 19, but he was also not at his best.
But what should worry the Indians is the ease with which some of the Afghan batsmen played the Indian trio of seamers.
“This format balances both teams, if one of the opposition batsman or bowler have a great day, it could change the result. A good performance but not a great performance from us,” Indian captain MS Dhoni said at the post-match presentation.
“There are a lot of areas we have to improve on to be honest. People talk a lot about five bowlers, but what matters is on the day how they bowl, whether they are a part-timer or a specialist,” he added.
Afghanistan skipper Nawroz Mangal was satisfied with the performance of his team against India, but was slightly disappointed with the batsmen’s shot selection and the fielding.
“It was a good game for the boys, we could have done better, shot selection was a bit poor, that was why we have lost the game.”
“We could have done better in the field, but we are satisfied we restricted the mighty Indian batting to 160,” Mangal said.
Earlier, it was Kohli’s dream run in international cricket that enabled India to reach 159 for five despite a poor show from senior pros like Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh.
The trio missed out on an opportunity to get big scores under their belt before the marquee game against England on Sunday.
Gambhir’s old habit of playing away from his body cost him dearly as he dragged back an innocuous delivery from Shapoor Zadran onto his middle stump. The left-hander made 10 runs.
Sehwag was dismissed by a peach of delivery from Shapoor. The ball pitched on the off-stump and moved a shade as the batsmen tentatively played at it and the resultant nick was gleefully accepted by wicketkeeper Mohammed Shahzad. He managed only eight.
Some lusty blows from Raina helped India set a decent, if not impressive, target against their qualifier opponents.
Dhoni ended the innings with a four and six off the last two deliveries in the innings to remain unbeaten on 18 from nine balls.
The Indians were also helped by some poor fielding by Afghanistan as they dropped as many as four catches – with Raina being dropped on two occasions.
Kohli was happy to start their campaign on a positive note what if the win was not impressive.
“Always good to get a start, good to start on a winning note,” he said.
“It’s always tough to play against a team with nothing to lose. They were in a situation where they could try a lot of things, we had to be more careful.” (PTI)