India A thrash Afghanistan A by 7 wickets in tri-series
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Karun Nair’s half century and Manish Pandey's cameo helped India A beat Afghanistan A by 7 wickets and register their first win of the tri-series. Earlier, India's bowlers led by Axar Patel and Vijay Shankar restricted the Afghans to just 149 in 41 overs which proved to be an easy target for India.
Brief Scores: Afghanistan A 149 in 40.5 overs (Sharafuddin Ashraf 39; Vijay Shankar 3/24, Axar Patel 3/33, Yuzvendra Chahal 2/42) lost to India A 150/3 in 30.4 overs (Karun Nair 57, Manish Pandey 41, Rishabh Pant 17; Yamin Ahmadzai 1/26) by 7 wickets.
In a low scoring match, India A skipper Manish Pandey won the toss and opted to bowl first. Siddarth Kaul then justified his captain’s decision as he got the first wicket in just the second over of the game. After that, India A didn’t take much time to send their counterparts back to the pavilion as the Afghans were bowled out for 149 in 40.5 overs.
Axar Patel was the star for India with the ball as picked up 3 wickets for 33 runs in 6 overs. Patel was ably supported by the 26-year-old all-rounder, Vijay Shankar who also took 3 wickets in 7 overs and gave away just 24 runs. Yuzvendra Chahal was the only Indian bowler who completed his full quota of overs and picked up 2 wickets for 42 runs.
The Indian bowlers dominated the Afghan batsmen from the word go as seven of their players failed to reach double digits. Sharafuddin Ashraf was the top scorer for the Afghanistan A side as he contributed 39 runs. In response, though India A lost three wickets they managed to achieve the target in 30.4 overs.
In the sixth over of India’s innings, Afghanistan got their first success as Indian opener Shreyas Iyer fell for 20 runs. However, Karun Nair's patient knock of 57 from 83 balls, along with skipper Pandey's innings of 41 from 52 balls, helped India seal a comprehensive 7 wicket win. The duo added 67 runs for the third wicket.Â
