New Delhi, Oct 11:
Rohit Sharma oozed class and elegance en route to a recording-breaking hundred, leading India to an emphatic eight-wicket win over Afghanistan in the ODI World Cup here on Wednesday.
Hasmatullah Shahidi’s dogged 80 and the young Azmatullah Omarazai’s gutsy 62 took Afghanistan to 272 for eight after opting to bat.
On a batting beauty, India skipper Rohit (131 off 84) was unstoppable and flaunted his envious range of strokes.
His record seventh World Cup hundred off 63 balls helped India gun down the target in 35 overs, giving a big boost to their net run-rate ahead of their third World Cup fixture against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 14.
There are few sights better than Rohit going about his business in full flow and that was on full display at the Feroz Shah Kotla grounds here.
Ahead of his third World Cup appearance, Rohit had spoken about playing a high-risk game and on Wednesday, he reaped high rewards for that fearless approach.
A clear sign of that intent was when he walked down the track to hit left-arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi for a flat six over wide long off in the fifth over of the chase, completing 1000 World Cup runs in the process. It was also the fastest hundred by an Indian in the 50-over mega event.
For the majority of their 156-run opening stand, Ishan Kishan (47 off 47) had the best view of Rohit’s artistry from the non striker’s end. (PTI)
SCOREBOARD
Afghanistan:
Rahmanullah Gurbaz c Thakur b Pandya 21
Ibrahim Zadran c Rahul b Bumrah 22
Rahmat Shah lbw b Thakur 16
Hashmatullah lbw b Yadav 80
Azmatullah Omarzai b Pandya 62
Mohammad Nabi lbw b Bumrah 19
Najibullah Zadran c Kohli b Bumrah 2
Rashid Khan c Yadav b Bumrah 16
Mujeeb Ur Rahman not out 10
Naveen Ul Haq not out 9
Extras: 15 (b-2, lb-3, w-8, nb-2)
Total: 272/8 in 50 overs
Fall of wickets: 1-32, 2-63, 3-63, 4-184, 5-225, 6-229, 7-235, 8-261
Bowling: Jasprit Bumrah 10-0-39-4, Mohammed Siraj 9-0-76-0, Hardik Pandya 7-0-43-2, Shardul Thakur 6-0-31-1, Kuldeep Yadav 10-0-40-1, Ravindra Jadeja 8-0-38-0.
India:
Rohit Sharma b Rashid 131
Ishan Kishan c Zadran b Rashid 47
Virat Kohli not out 55
Shreyas Iyer not out 25
Extras: 15 (b-1, lb-4, w-10)
Total: 273/2 in 35 overs
Fall of wickets: 1-156, 2-205
Bowling: Fazalhaq Farooqi 6-0-50-0, Mujeeb Ur Rahman 8-0-64-0, Naveen-Ul-Haq 5-0-31-0, Azmatullah Omarzai 4-0-34-0, Mohammad Nabi 4-0-32-0, Rashid Khan 8-0-57-2.
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