IND vs AFG, 2nd T20I: Fiery Fifties From Jaiswal, Dube Help India Cruise To Smooth 6-Wicket Win
Producer: Siddarth Sriram
Afghanistan's innings started in peril as Ravi Bishnoi struck yet again in his first over to remove opener Gurbaz early.
And the misery was just piling on them as the Indians were seemingly on good pace to bowl out the Afghans, picking off wickets in quick intervals to leave them at 60-3.
But, opener Gulbadin Naib made his stand and kept whacking the Indian bowlers at ease to bring up a fabulous fifty for himself and anchored the Afghan's innings.
But then struck Axar Patel yet again to crush the Afghan's hopes and they were once again left in search of runs to put up a competitive target.
A handful of quickfire innings followed as the likes of Najibullah, Janat and Mujeeb all put away the Indians for quick runs and steered Afghanistan to a historic total against India.
All five of the remaining wickets for Afghanistan fell in the final over, as Arshdeep nothced up 3 wickets and the Afghans set India a formidable total of 173 runs.
Afghanistan got off to a dream start as well with the ball, as skipper Rohit Sharma was dismissed for a duck yet again, marking his record-breaking 12th duck in T20Is.
The returning Virat Kohli then got off to a blazing start, notching up the fours and sixes at will.
Naveen Ul-Haq struck right on time to dismiss a dangerous Virat Kohli, who put up 29 runs in just 16 balls, and it seemed like Afghanistan had a breakthrough.
But, all hopes of a breakthrough were thrown out the window as Yashavi Jaiswal took to the Afghan bowlers, clobbering them at will to notch a fiery fifty.
Shivam Dube also joined in on the party as the batter unleased a blitzkrieg upon the Afghan bowlers, and along with Jaiswal, took the life out of the opposition.
But, the fiery partnership came to an end as Jaiswal departed for 68 runs off Karim Janat's delivery, bringing an end to a 92-run stand with Dube.
It was too little too late for the Afghans as Dube continued to pile on the misery and notched his second consecutive blazing fifty to steer India to yet another easy win.
So, India sealed the game with overs to go. Despite losing skipper Rohit Sharma for a duck, the hosts never broke a sweat in this chase, as they cruised to a 6-wicket win.