Shivam Dube‘s unbeaten 40-ball 60 powered India to a 6-wicket win in IND vs AFG 1st T20I at Mohali on Thursday. Chasing 159, Team India had a disastrous start, losing skipper Rohit Sharma in the first over. But Dube played a quickfire knock to put India 1-0 ahead in 3-match T20I series. Tilak Varma and Jitesh Sharma also played cameos of 26 and 31 to help India chase down the target with 15 balls to spare.
Earlier, after opting to field first, Team India appeared a bit stiff in the freezing Mohali conditions, as a few misfields and dropped catches allowed the Afghanistan openers, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (23) and Ibrahim Zadran (25), to gain momentum.
The duo added 50 runs before Axar Patel got the better of Gurbaz to provide India with the breakthrough. Skipper Zadran followed suit soon after as he attempted to go over covers off Shivam Dube. Patel then stuck another in quick succession to reduce Afghanistan to 57/3.
Veteran all-rounder Mohammad Nabi once again came to the rescue, scoring a 27-ball 42 to spark a comeback. Nabi along with Azmatullah Omarzai (29) added 68 runs before Mukesh dismissed both in the same over.
Najibullah Zadran’s quick 11-ball 19 at the end pushed the visitors to 158/5.
All eyes were on skipper Rohit Sharma, who took the guard as T20I batter for the first time since November 2022.
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However, Sharma’s return lasted only two balls as he got run-out after a horrible mix-up with Shubman Gill who was caught ball watching.
Gill tried to redeem himself with a 12-ball 23 before getting stumped off Mujeeb Ur Rehman’s delivery.
Tilak Varma and Shivam Dube then added a quickfire 44 to keep India in command.
Azmatullah Omarzai got rid of Varma but Dube continued his onslaught and received a good support from Jitesh Sharma who rode his luck to score 20-ball 31.
Rinku Singh then did the finishing job with an unbeaten 16 to guide India to a comfortable win.
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