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Key events
12th over: India 98-4 (Suryakumar 22, Hardik 6) Singles for the first half of the over, but a classy, dancing four through extra cover from Hardik sends Naveen spinning for four. Oh God, Suryakumar looks in danger here as Hardik drives straight and strong, knocking the stumps at the non-striker’s end. But a reaction like a deer from Sky darting back just in time.
11th over: India 90-4 (Suryakumar 20, Hardik 0) Refreshed, Suryakumar sweeps a ball on leg stump from Rashid for four. Hey! Another shot but high, faster, harder, flying into the crowd for six. Rashid Khan immediately sets up the breaks by removing the dangerous Dube.
VARITKA! Dube lbw Rashid (India 90-4)
Third wicket for Rashid Khan as Dube falls to the pickel against leg break. Paul Reiffel doesn’t give it away on the pitch but Rashid scores straight away and sure enough Dube is hit on the back leg, in the line.
10th over: India 79-3 (Suryakumar 9, Dube 10) Dube drops to his knees, in gentle chivalric style, and hits a juicy wide off Noor for a six down the ground. A couple of singles and a decent total on the board at the halfway stage.
9th over: India 67-3 (Suryakumar 6, Dube 1) Some beautiful turbans in the crowd, Afghan flags flying as India wilt with the loss of Kohli. But Suryakumar unleashes India’s vuvuzelas with a stretched-out swing off the off-stump to Rashid Khan’s last ball.
VARITKA! Kohli c Nabi b Rashid 24 (India 62-3)
Kohli goes to loft Rashid over cover but picks the fielder with pinpoint accuracy. He threw his head back in frustration – still, finally double digits.
8th over: India 60-2 (Kohli 22, Suryakumar 2) Noor with his first over, a rhythmic approach and keeps things steady except for the wide one.
VARITKA! Pant lbw Rashid 20 (India 54-2)
7th over: India 54-2 (Kohli 19) Rashid Khan comes on, after that 13-run close to the power play. He took more of a toss against West Indies, but spoils the spell immediately here, catching Pant lbw off-balance on the outstretched front leg while trying to reverse. Blown reviews, with optimism, but it was sent on its way.
6th over: India 47-1 (Kohli 17, Pant 19) Naby will win the powerplay finale and it’s eventful. Direct hit for a quick single off the first ball, they go up but Pant was home. Pant reverse sweeps the next ball for four at straight leg, sweeps the third as it falls – it lands high into the hands of Naveen at fine leg – who drops it as well as helps it over the boundary boards for four. Third four in a row as Pant crashes over cover.
5th over: India 34-1 (Kohli 16, Pant 7) Naveen-ul-Haq. Kohli watches for three balls and then smashes the slower ball for a six with a magnificent swing of the bat over Naveen’s head.
4th over: India 25-1 (Kohli 7, Pant 7) Pant is in the mood for this, picks up three with rolling wrists through cover. Kohli sweeps Nabit twice in the over.
twice.
3rd over: India 16-1 (Kohli 1, Pant 4)Afghanistan review lbw to Rohit, the ball hits the back leg as Rohit drops to take a wild shot – but it bowls outside leg. A couple of wides in the over but Afghanistan give India nothing to play with and finally the frustration gets to Rohit who falls cheaply again. And as I write this, Pant picks up a four off his first legitimate ball, a neat little flick through reverse field.
VARITKA! Rohit c Rashid b Fazalhaq 8 (India 11-1)
Eager shrill down town from Rohit but hits the toe of the bat and rises short. Rashid waits patiently in the middle to take.
2nd over: India 8-0 (Rohit 7, Kohli 0) A spin from the other end with Mohamed Nabi, sleeves rolled up, hair slicked back. Virat Kohli is even fewer runs than Rohit – scores of 1, 4 and 0 so far in this competition. Only two
1st over: India 5-0 (Rohit 5, Kohli 0) Fazalhaq with the first over, the leading wicket-taker in the competition. Rohit defends a couple, fumbles one, flies and misses, searching for his lost form. It ended up being four out of the lead after a pretty hopeless stretch of the field at short third.
Sorry, I was totally confused according to television pictures, apparently the earth is only about one-eighth full. Only 10.30am in Barbados. Afghanistan get together and do something like all for one and one for all hand pyramid before breaking free. Kohli and Rohit will open the innings for India.
Lyrics: March of the players, Rohit with his arm around the leading talisman. Looks pretty full in the stands, lots of blue and orange jerseys and flags. Sunglasses representing Afghanistan quite strongly.
One of the pleasures of this tournament was to see Rishabh Pant behind and in front of the stumps. Taha wrote a wonderful review.
Afghanistan XI
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Gulbadin Naib, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Rashid Khan (capt), Noor Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqui.
One change for Afghanistan too, Hazratullah Zazai replaces Karim Jannat.
India XI
India: Rohit Sharma (capt), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh.
One change for their final group stage match, Kuldeep Yadav replaces Mohammed Siraj.
Ian Smith with the pitch report – it’s a scorcio 31 degrees with 12km/h winds blowing from the long boundary. Sunil Gavaskar says India want to capitalize on the ball coming into the bat fairly quickly.
India won the toss and will bat!
Rohit Sharma: “Looks a good track, no grass on the pitch, I think it will get slower and slower. We had a good time in New York, won games there, but we have to adapt to here. I had a few practice sessions to get used to the new conditions.
Rashid Khan would also hit, “but it doesn’t really matter to me, it’s how we play the game. I think now every team is good, we have to do the right things at the right time, play our natural game. We have been here for more than two weeks, I think that will help us a bit, but at the same time we still have to play good cricket.”
Lit looks soft and beautiful and blue skis and blissful in Bridgetown. Ravi Shastri with a huge hat with a blown introduction to the toss.
Preamble
Hello! After England’s win in St Lucia in the early hours, another shocker looms behind the cork – this time between Rohit Sharma’s India and surprise Super Eight contender Afghanistan, who knocked New Zealand out of the Group C race.
The circus has shifted to Barbados, India’s first foray on Caribbean soil this tournament. They go into the Super Eights unbeaten, despite their woes on the New York pitch, while Afghanistan have only lost to the West Indies – but that was pretty brutal.
Ali wrote about it here:
Play starts at 3.30 BST, toss in 15 minutes.
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