Already out of the tournament, India signed off on a high from the 2022 Asia Cup after beating Afghanistan by 101 runs in their final Super Four match at the Dubai International Stadium on Thursday.
In a dead rubber, talismanic batsman Virat Kohli gave Indian fans many reasons to rejoice. As soon as captain Rohit Sharma was rested, Kohli was promoted to open the batting. What happened after that was something anyone could have predicted, leaving Kohli himself astonished.
Kohli ended his drought of not scoring a century in international cricket for 1020 days, scoring a sensational career-best 122 off just 61 balls, with 12 fours and six sixes, at a strike-rate of 200.
After a scintillating 119 off 76 balls by stand-in captain KL Rahul, Kohli was astonishingly quick to score 59 off 40 balls and scored his next 63 off just 21 balls to score his 71st international. century. On the basis of Kohli’s century, India made a huge score of 212/2.
Then, senior pacer Bhuvneshwar’s 5/4 spell, with lots of swing and consistently hitting the right areas, put an end to Afghanistan’s challenge, eventually restricting them to 111/8 in 20 overs.
It was a day of forgetfulness for Afghanistan, who entered the game less than 24 hours after a wicket was broken against Pakistan in Sharjah. He dropped catches including Kohli for 28, he looked tired and just not doing his best.
After getting no boundaries in the first two overs, India went ahead as Rahul and Kohli hit a boundary each off the leg-side of Fazlhaq Farooqui. Rahul then pulled Mujeeb ur Rahman from backward square leg and pulled Fareed Ahmed for a four.
Kohli got into offensive mode by sending Mujeeb for fours from down the ground and sweeping through backward square leg, before smashing a six to the ground before ending the powerplay on high.
After the power-play, Rahul pulled Rashid Khan over deep mid-wicket for six overs, while Kohli was dropped for 28 as Ibrahim Zadran smashed Mohammad Nabi over the boundary rope for six more. Stopped coming out.
Kohli looked in dazzling touch, scaffolding inside-out at extra cover was the standout as he reached his fifty in 32 balls. In the next over, Rahul scored a half-century off Nabi with the help of pull and loft in 36 balls.
But to go big, Rahul pulls off Ahmed’s cross-seam ball and flies it towards top-edge long-on. On the very first ball, Suryakumar Yadav hit a six at fine leg. But on the very next ball, he cut Ahmed’s stumps.
Kohli continued to impress against spin in his innings, dismissing Rashid for a six over deep mid-wicket. He then proceeded with successive flicks for fours off Ahmed and hit fours off the off-side off Farooqui.
After slamming Ahmed into the field in the 19th over, Kohli scored his maiden T20I century in 53 balls, hitting a six at deep mid-wicket for six. Farooqui came in for more threshing in the final over as Kohli hit him for sixes at long-off and deep mid-wicket and smashed a boundary through cover to collect 18 runs in the final over.
His unbeaten 122, a mix of classic and brutal cricketing shots at the same time, came in at a strike-rate of 200, which is also the highest score by an Indian male batsman in T20Is. Kohli now joins former Australia captain Ricky Ponting to score 71 international hundreds, which is joint second on 100 led by batting great Sachin Tendulkar.
With the ball, Bhuvneshwar was right on the money from the word go, shaping a back to trap Hazratullah Zazai lbw. Two balls later, he produced a full Jaffa to shatter the stumps of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and sent both the openers back to the pavilion in the opening over.
Swinging the ball both ways and consistently pitching in the right areas, Bhuvneshwar was making the Afghanistan batsmen dance to his tune. Karim Janat gave a thick lead at first slip on the outswinger, while Najibullah Zadran missed his flick and went lbw on the inswinger.
After Arshdeep Singh dismissed Nabi lbw, Bhuvneshwar completed his five-wicket haul by chopping a finger ball to direct cover to Azmatullah Omerzai. Rashid hit two fours before Deepak Hooda got deep out on the first ball.
Jadran hit some boundaries while Mujeeb played a long innings against Ravichandran Ashwin. Though Mujeeb was eventually cast by Ashwin, Jadran completed his half-century with a six off Dinesh Karthik in the final over. But, by then, the outcome was predetermined.
Brief Scores: India 212/2 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 122 not out, KL Rahul 62; Fareed Malik 2/57) beat Afghanistan to 111/8 in 20 overs (Ibrahim Zadran 64 not out, Mujeeb ur Rahman 18; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 5) Defeated. /4, Deepak Hooda 1/3) by 101 runs.
