India were already out of the Asia Cup while going into the match against Afghanistan in Dubai on Thursday. But that didn’t deter them from putting on a stunning show, led by Virat Kohli’s maiden T20I hundred.
Kohli opened the innings in the absence of Rohit Sharma, who was rested, and made his way to an unbeaten 122 off just 61 deliveries. His innings consisted of 12 fours and six huge sixes, as he kept batting at a brisk pace throughout his innings.
This was also Kohli’s first international hundred after a wait of 1020 days. The last time he scored a century was in a Test match against Bangladesh in November 2019.
This is Kohli’s 71st International ton and it puts him on par with former Australia captain Ricky Ponting, who also scored 71 centuries during his international career. Only Sachin Tendulkar is ahead of them now, with 100 international centuries to his name.
Kohli put on an opening stand of 119 with KL Rahul, who also played a good knock of 62 off just 41 deliveries. India lost Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav in quick succession with the scoreboard reading 125/2 in the 13th over. But there was no stopping India once Rishabh Pant joined Kohli at the crease. Pant remained unbeaten on 20 off just 16 deliveries while Kohli smashed an unbeaten 122, helping India to a total of 212/2.
Afghanistan would have loved to put on a good fight at least, even if they didn’t succeed in chasing the target down. But they couldn’t do that as Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled a stunning new ball spell, which saw Afghanistan getting reduced to 21/6 within seven overs.
Bhuvneshwar finished his spell soon with mind-blowing figures of 4-1-4-5. It was the second best figures recorded by an Indian pacer in T20Is.
India would have wanted to finish the match soon, but Ibrahim Zadran hung around with the lower order right until the last over. He made his way to an unbeaten 64 off 59 deliveries while the likes of Rashid Khan (15) and Mujeeb Ur Rahman (18) made valuable contributions too. Afghanistan finished their innings on 111/8, losing the match by a margin of 101 runs. Virat Kohli was deservedly adjudged the Player of the Match for his superb century.
Brief Scores
India 212/2 in 20 overs (Kohli 122*, Rahul 62; Ahmad 2/57) beat Afghanistan (Zadran 64*, Mujeeb 18; Bhuvneshwar 5/4) by 101 runs.
