India Vs Afghanistan || Asia Cup 2018 || Super 4 || Match 5

India Vs Afghanistan || Asia Cup 2018 || Super 4 || Match 5

Fifth Game of the Super 4 and to be frank Afghanistan is one such team that did not go down so easily in every match they had played. A huge respect goes out for them on everyone's behalf.

After winning the toss, Afghanistan Captain, Asghar Afghan decided to bat first. Deepak Chahar had made his ODI debut. There were many players who were rested for the finals that India will be playing this 28th of September. in the absence of Indian Captain, Rohit Sharma, Former Indian Captain M.S.Dhoni came out for the toss along with the Afghanistan team's captain.

MS Dhoni Captancy, 200th Match

For the match, Afghanistan had 2 changes in the form of Samiullah and Ihsanullah. Instead of them, Najibullah and Javed Ahmadi made it to the playing eleven for the match.

For India, there were many changes. In the absence of Rohit Sharma and Shikar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul and Deepak Char got their chance in this Asia Cup series. Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar are other players who were also rested for the same reason as for the previous ones. Manish Pandey, Siddarth Kaul, K Khaleel Ahmed are the other players who made it to the playing eleven for this match.

In the first half, Afghanistan played brilliantly to put out a decent total of 252 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in their 50 overs. the start that their openers provided was brilliant and one man who stood out in the first half of the match was none other than Mohammad Shahzad. He scored a brilliant century and got out after making 124 runs off just 116 deliveries. Both the spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav made the life for the Afghanistan team difficult. Both together took 5 wickets and made sure that there was not a long partnership between the Afghanistan players. The slogging of Mohammed Nabi at the latter half of the innings helped Afghanistan to post a total of 252 runs in their 50 overs quota. Afghanistan team had put up a decent total and with the quality bowling side that they have, the target always seemed to be a bit tricky.

Indian Batsmen started the innings brilliantly and provided just the start that was needed. Both Lokesh Rahul and Ambati Rayadu stitched a partnership of 110 runs after 17 overs. Afghanistan came back in the game after sending both the openers back to the pavilion. M. S. Dhoni too joined them when the team score was 142 runs after 26 overs. Manish Pandey too could not capitalize on the opportunity that he had and got out after scoring a mere 8 runs. Kedhar Jadhav along with Dinesh Karthik took the score past 200 when a brilliant throw from Mujeeb Ur Rehman sent Kedhar back to the pavilion. The match was in fact at such a thrilling position, that people all across the world started following the match eagerly. Ravindra Jadeja was the last recognized batsman who was battling against a formidable bowling Afghan side. It all came down to the last over when the Indian Team required to score 7 runs off the last over. It was Rashid who was bowling the last over. In the second ball of the last over Ravindra Jadeja hit a boundary making it 3 runs required off the last 4 deliveries. They took 2 singles and equalized the Afghan total.

2 balls were left and all India needed to be was 1 run. Jadeja pulled the short-pitched delivery from Rashid Khan, but couldn't connect it properly and it was none other than Najibullah Zadran who had completed the catch to all out the India team for the same score of 252 runs. The match ended in a tie.

All in all, Cricket was the winner of this game. This will go down as one of the greatest matches of the History and the Afghanistan team will remember it for a long long time.