India’s fringe players, led by Shivam Dube, seized the opportunity to set up a six-wicket win over Afghanistan in the first T20 of the three-match series here on Thursday.
A lively partnership of 68 runs off 43 balls between veteran Mohammad Nabi (42 off 27) and youngster Azmatullah Omarzai (29 off 22) lifted Afghanistan to 158 for five after India dominated the powerplay.
Dube, playing his first T20 since the Asian Games, and Tilak Varma (26 off 22) shared 44 runs off 29 balls to add momentum to India’s innings after losing the openers in four overs.
Rohit Sharma (0), returning to T20s after 14 months, and Shubman Gill (23) were involved in an avoidable mess that limited the Indian skipper’s stay to just two balls. The usually calm and cool Rohit did not hide his anger on this occasion as Gill ignored his calls for a quick single.
Gill could not stay for long but Varma and Dube were able to move forward and India did not look back from there.
Dube, who is seen as Hardik Pandya’s injury-prone outfielder, used his long levers effectively and his scornful drives on the offside side stood out. He finished the match in style with a straight six and a four in the fine leg area.
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Jitesh Sharma (31 off 20) also gave a good account before Rinku Singh (16 not off 9) joined Dube in the middle to take the team home.
Openers Rahamanullah Gurbaz (23 off 28) and captain Ibrahim Zadran (25 off 22) could only find four boundaries in the over.
Axar Patel, who finished as India’s top bowler with figures of 4-0-23-2, caught Gurbaz off guard with a quick and direct delivery after the opening pull swept him for a six.
Rahmat Shah, making his T20 debut after playing 106 ODIs for Afghanistan, chopped at the stumps of a flatter one from Axar.
As the top bowlers struggled to turn the tide, Omarzai and Nabi showed their teammates how to build a T20 innings.
Nabia’s back-to-back sixes against Mukesh stood out in his quick hitting. First he made room to smash it over extra cover and was still waiting for the second ball to send him over mid-wicket.
Najibullah Zadran (19 not out 11) and Karim Janat (9 not out 5) put up a total of over 150.
