IND vs AFG 2024: “We need to build the momentum throughout the game” – Ibrahim Zadran after loss in 2nd T20I

Afghanistan skipper Ibrahim Zadran admitted that they were good in patches in the second T20I against India at the Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore on Sunday. Afghanistan suffered a six-wicket loss and Zadran feels they need to be consistent throughout the whole game to get the desired result.

Afghanistan posted 172 runs on the board, after Rohit Sharma won the toss but Zadran reckons they were short of a par score. While senior pro-Gulbadin Naib scored an impressive 35-ball 57, the other Afghan batters failed to get going against the Indian bowlers.

In fact, barring Naib, none of the other Afghanistan batters could even go past the 25-run mark.

On the other hand, Indian bowlers were right on the money with Arshdeep Singh taking three wickets whereas Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi bagged a brace.

Meanwhile, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dube scored their fourth and third T20I fifty respectively to get India over the line in the run-chase and take an impregnable lead of 2-0 in the series.

Jaiswal scored a quickfire 34-ball 68 whereas Dube scored his second half-century on the bounce as he scored an unbeaten knock of 63 runs off just 32 balls. Furthermore, Virat Kohli scored a quickfire 29 runs from 16 balls on his return to the T20I format.

Ibrahim Zadran said in the post-match presentation, “We were quite short. We had a good start but not very good after that. Sometimes we play well in the powerplay, sometimes in the middle and sometimes at the death. We need to build the momentum throughout and not repeat mistakes to have a good T20 World Cup.”

On Gulbadin Naib, Zadran said, “He’s the most senior guy, we trust him and when he played a few shots in the powerplay, we wanted him to take that momentum throughout the innings.”

The third and final T20I of the series between India and Afghanistan will be played at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Wednesday.