Openers Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson pulverise Afghans, seal series with seven-wicket win

New Delhi: The Afghans began cautiously to ensure they don't lose early wickets in the powerplay like in the first match and they did manage to save their wickets for the later phase. But all that caution came to nought in the end as they couldn't capitalise on it and were walloped by the power-packed Indian cricket team's top-order to lose the second T20 International by seven wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.

The result sealed the three-match series in India's favour. Shreyas Iyer's side leads 2-0 with a game to go.

India suffered a setback ahead of this game as they lost Varun Chakravarthy to a side strain and Ravi Bishnoi, who replaced him wasn't exactly a like-for-like replacement.

But the bowlers, including Bishnoi, managed to keep things tight in the powerplay and kept Afghans to 41 just like in the first match. The only difference was that they couldn't pick as many wickets -- India had taken four in the powerplay in the first match but here they could take only one.

It was clear that the Afghans, who are officially hosts of this series, were keeping wickets for later overs and seemingly eyeing overs from Bishnoi and the fifth bowler, the duty of which was to be fulfilled by Nitish Reddy and Shivam Dube.

However, quashing their hopes, the pace bowling all-rounders conceded 37 in their four overs with Reddy returning 3/27 in his three overs.

Bishnoi too got a wicket, 1/32, from his quota of four overs. Bumrah (1/25) and Arshdeep (2/35) gave a good account of themselves while Axar Patel was as effective as he was in the first encounter with 1/28.

The outlet to let off steam that the Afghans were looking for was shut by India in this game. The bowlers had come prepared. The result of all this was that Afghanistan ended with 159/8 in their 20 overs, just three more than what they scored in the first game.

Ibrahim Zadran (37 off 33) was the top-scorer while Rashid Khan (28 off 16), miserable with both bat and ball in the first tie, Darwish Rasooli (26 off 15) and Mohammed Nabi (20 off 14 balls) only flickered.

The target of 160 on this surface was gettable and once again it was Abhishek Sharma (39 off 19, 2x4s, 4x6s) who went ballistic early. He had Sanju Samson (57 off 22, 7x4s, 4x6s) for company this time. The two openers added 88 for the first wicket in just over six overs. They piled 82 in the powerplay stage without losing a single wicket. Sharma hit 33 of those and Samson 47 of them.

Abhishek Sharma, who hit 82 in the first match, was threatening to score another big half-century before he was caught off by Sediq Atal Rashid Khan in the deep. Samson continued past fifty but was held by a jumping Mohammed Nabi at long-on boundary also off Rashid Khan. But by then India had raced to 99 in seven overs and the result was a foregone conclusion.

India lost one more wicket and reached the target with 5.1 overs to spare.

India won the first match also by seven wickets. The third and final game of this series will be played on Thursday night at the same venue.

Tags : Cricket, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Indian cricket team, Afghanistan, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Nitish Kumar Reddy