India was hit with batting debacle when they scored 224/8 against minnows Afghanistan in the ICC Cricket World Cup match in Southampton on Saturday. Afghan bowlers confined Indian batting lineup with India’s lowest first innings total score in ODI’s since 2010. Earlier, Indian skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and under sunny Southampton skies, elected to bat first. India made one change to their line-up after their win against Pakistan, as seam bowler Mohammed Shami replaced the injured Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Afghanistan, bottom of the 10-team World Cup table, made two changes. They brought in Hazratullah Zazai and Aftab Alam for Noor Ali Zadran and Dawlat Zadran.
Unexpectedly, the Afghans were off to flying start when spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman rattled opener Rohit Sharma’s stumps to leave India at 7/1 after 4.2 overs. Afghanistan got a golden chance to dismiss KL Rahul in the 5th over of the match, when he edged a ball off Aftab Alam but the ball went in between wicketkeeper and first slip. After those minor mishaps, Kohli and Rahul started to get their act together and tried to build an alliance.
They were looking good before Mohammad Nabi came in the attack and removed Rahul (30), leaving India at 64/2 after 14.2 overs. Fall of wickets didn’t bothered Kohli as he was moving the scoreboard quickly. He reached his 50 off 48 balls. It was his third consecutive World Cup fifty. Amid Kohli’s fluent batting Afghan bowlers were really competitive, keeping in mind the gulf in class between the two sides. They got their third wicket through spinner Rahmat Shah, when he trapped Vijay Shankar (29), putting India in a spot of bother.
When it was looking Kohli was set and raring to go for more, Nabi struck again and he got the big wicket of Kohli, leaving India at 135/4 after 30.3 overs. Kohli played 63-ball 67 run innings before departing. Afghanistan players were upbeat and were looking to restrict India to a low total. The ever reliant MS Dhoni and other batsman Kedar Jadav were at the crease, as they tried to finish strongly for India.
They were going along well and had a 57-run partnership for the fifth wicket stand before Rashid Khan tricked Dhoni (28) and he was stumped out. In the last 5 overs, India added a mere 35 runs only. Given the firepower India possess in batting, this was a pure batting fiasco.
