Arguably India’s most versatile T20 batsman – so hard to bowl to when in full flow – hit his way out of a jam to help his team towards a total of 181/6 which proved enough to beat Afghanistan in the teams’ first match of the Super Eight round of the 2024 T20 World Cup. 

Suryakumar’s 28-ball 53 was the only score of more than 32 in India’s innings and he made batting look ridiculously easy on what was a tough track. That terrific knock was backed by some fine bowling from Jasprit Bumrah and India’s trio of spinners as Afghanistan were kept to 134 thus handing India victory by 47 runs. 

Rohit Sharma’s decision to bat was the correct one, but barring the world class Suryakumar India didn’t have the required gumption to cope on a slow-and-low Kensington Oval surface. The two-paced nature of the pitch meant that neither of the openers found their timing, and Rashid Khan ran through his four overs early to pocket figures of 3/26 which included the heart of India’s top five: Rishabh Pant, Virat Kohli and Shivam Dube. 

Rohit was reduced to a stroke-less figure as he ate up 13 deliveries for his right runs, out mistiming an attempted big shot against the tournament’s leading wicket-taker, Fazalhaq Farooqi. Then it was all Rashid, who tied down Kohli (24 off 24 balls) before the opener tried to hit him for six and was gobbled up at long-off. Pant swept his way to 20 before another such shot, off his 11th ball faced, was out lbw. Dube, picked for exactly such conditions, hit a six off his fifth ball faced but lasted just two more, beaten by a Rashid legbreak. At 90/4 after 11 overs, India were in a hole. 

The good news was that by this time, SKY had made 20 off 10 deliveries on a tough pitch. After 14 overs, he was 34 off 17 and looking like a different beast as he constantly looked to offset the Afghanistan bowlers. 

With Hardik Pandya for company, SKY put on 60 to get India towards a suitable total. Pandya was circumspect compared to his partner, who raised his fifty off 27 balls with his fifth four, a whip past midwicket that beat two fielders in the deep as well. The fun ended the next ball when SKY mistimed a massive slog but having dragged India to 150/5 after 17 overs he had done superbly. 

Pandya was 26 off 19 balls at the time and didn’t get past 32, leaving Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and the lower order to try and score as much as possible off the final two overs. They managed 22, of which 12 came from Axar, which got India to 181/8 after 20 overs. 

The experience of Bumrah was immediately on view when he extracted Rahmanullah Gurbaz with his second ball after the Afghanistan opener took 13 off Arshdeep Singh. Kohli dropped Ibrahim Zadran on 6 at point, a catch above his head hurrying him faster than he anticipated, but the miss cost India just two runs. Zadran made room to drill Axar into the offside but found Rohit at cover. When Bumrah removed Hazratullah Zazai first ball of his second over, a thick outside edge settling in Jadeja’s palms at point, the match was officially over as a contest. 

The asking rate crept past 10 per over and soon hurried on, leaving Afghanistan’s middle order with too much to do. Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav turned it on from there, with the latter marking his first appearance of this World Cup with two wickets. Bumrah returned to cap a third outstanding performance in four games (4-1-7-3) while Arshdeep made it 10 wickets for the tournament with 3/36. 

India next play Bangladesh on June 22 and Australia on June 24.