India beat Afghanistan by 66 runs to come back to winning ways in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. In the process, they pull their net run-rate back into positive and stay alive in the contest. Their ner run-rate reads +0.073 with two more games to go in the league stage. The side has moved upto the fourth position in the points table after this win.

Knowing that they had a lot to do, Indian openers started aggressively against the Afghan bowlers. Rohit Sharma (74) and KL Rahul (69) stitched an opening stand of 140 to lay the platform. Rishabh Pant (27) and Hardik Pandya (35) went all guns blazing in the final overs to tek the score past 200. They finally ended up scoring 210/2.

With his bowlers, Virat Kohli had an ultra aggressive approach while he defended the total. Mohammad Shami and Jasprit Bumrah bowled two overs each upfront and took early wickets as well.

India Beat Afghanistan By 66 Runs

Ravichandran Ashwin, playing his first T20I game since 2017 ended with 2/14. He did not concede any boundary off his spell. In the end, despite some big shots from the Afghanistan batters, India won the game by 66 runs to stay in the contest. They needed to win by a margin of over 60 runs to pull their net run-rate into positive which they did as well.

Twitter welcomed back the Indian team to winning ways. They celebrated the victory knowing that the team still has a slim chance of making the semi-finals.

A win at last, lot wen right for India. Hopefully more of the same ahead. Win, rest not in your control.

— Nikhil 🏏 (@CricCrazyNIKS) November 3, 2021

A big day for both New Zealand and India, as they take the wins, including a landmark 3000 T20I, runs for Martin Guptill 🔥@RoyalStaglil | #ItItToWinIt pic.twitter.com/4PuJCmldZ9

— ICC (@ICC) November 3, 2021

Superb win. Now two more Games. Keep adding to the NRR and let’s see what happens on Sunday when NZ play Afghanistan. #INDvsAFG at least cricket fans can enjoy their Diwali. Here is my take. pic.twitter.com/8j8C7pPU4a

— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) November 3, 2021

The Afghanistan New Zealand game could end up being the most watched match of the tournament now. Afghanistan can expect a lot of support.#T20WC

— Gaurav Sundararaman (@gaurav_sundar) November 3, 2021

🇮🇳👏 Keep going 💪 pic.twitter.com/9CWKGBV8x8

— Shikhar Dhawan (@SDhawan25) November 3, 2021

Indian people love devouring sweets during Diwali. Tonight it was the turn of Afghan Jalebi 😋 #INDvAFG #T20WorldCup21

— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) November 3, 2021

Perfect Diwali Gift from #TeamIndia Fantastic all round performance!#T20WorldCup #INDvsAFG

— S.Badrinath (@s_badrinath) November 3, 2021

#TeamIndia this is the brand of cricket you are known for! #INDvAFG #T20WorldCup

— Pragyan Ojha (@pragyanojha) November 3, 2021

Finally India is Back in the game! Congratulations for your first win. Amazing performance overall. highest Total of the #T20WorldCup well played @klrahul11 and @ImRo45 #INDvsAFG @ICC @BCCI

— Saeed Ajmal (@REALsaeedajmal) November 3, 2021

210/2 today by #TeamIndia is their 2nd highest score in #ICCT20WorldCup

Their previous best was 218/4 against @englandcricket in #T20WorldCup 2007

Comprehensive win today! Good to see India back to their fluent best!#INDvAFG

— Abhinav Mukund (@mukundabhinav) November 3, 2021

This is how it is done. India played like India. 👏👏 #T20WorldCup #IndvAfg

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) November 3, 2021

So great to see Team India’s performance on the field today, @ashwinravi99 you were brilliant tonight, @ImRo45 & @klrahul11 amazing partnership. Keep up the good work, more power to you! 🇮🇳🙌#INDvAFG #T20WorldCup

— Suresh Raina🇮🇳 (@ImRaina) November 3, 2021

India can make it to the semi-finals if Afghanistan could beat NZ even by 1 run. Of course, India need to beat both Scotland and Namibia by good margin.

What is advantageous for India is that they play the last league match, so would know what needs to be done.#T20WorldCup

— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) November 3, 2021

Indian skipper Virat Kohli was a relieved man at the post-match presentation.

” Sometimes, you do fall to the pressure and have to accept that. T20 cricket is a very instinctive game, in batting, bowling and decision-making. We do make decisions on the go. Top three is mostly settled unless situations like today when the openers batted all the way through and the power-hitters were ready. We don’t always decide early to go hard, but we do back ourselves and when we do get going, we know what we can do. Well, yes that is the plan (to keep playing this way) but as I said, sometimes you just give in to the pressure. The other teams bowled really well to us. Yes, it (net run rate) was to be honest. We are always positive, and so were thinking about it. The return of Ash (is the biggest positive), we saw him doing well in the IPL and when he does this, we get control in the middle overs. That’s what I’m most pleased about (today)” said Kohli.

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