Match report: India see off spirited Afghan challenge

Colombo: If only Afghanistan had held on to their chances, India might have been in some real trouble. They dropped four catches – with Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina (twice) and Virat Kohli being the beneficiaries and paid a heavy price for it, especially in the last three instances. As things panned out, India managed to make 159 for the loss of 5 wickets against an Afghan team that left absolutely nothing in tank. They charged in on every ball, threw themselves around and gave a really good account of themselves. [caption id=“attachment_461464” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  India had their current man for a crisis, Kohli, continue his form. AP[/caption] In reply, Afghanistan managed 136 and gave India quite a few anxious moments. With this attack, it’s hard to see India go all the way. Their batsmen will need to do the hard work – and turn in a much better batting performance than they did on Wednesday night. Afghanistan threw their bats around to good effect – the top three batsmen put on 75 but then they came unstuck. The shot of the match and maybe of the tournament was one that saw Mohammad Shahzad whip one off the stumps for four off the bowling of Zaheer Khan. It was a stunning shot and resembled the ‘helicopter’ shot so much that Dhoni could barely control his grin. Yuvraj Singh took 3-24 off his four overs, including two wickets off two balls to underline just how important he is to the T20 side. Down the order, only Mohammad Nadi got going with 31 off 17 balls with 2 fours and 2 sixes. And even though Afghanistan gave the Indians a fright early on, they just didn’t have the class to really trouble Dhoni’s side. Balaji finished things off in the last over to end up with 3-19. Zaheer had an ‘off’ day as Dhoni would say and so did Irfan. But as far as spirit is concerned, Afghanistan aren’t lacking in the least. In fact, they might even have taught Dhoni and his boys a lesson or two.