India Beat Afghanistan by 8 Wickets

New Delhi: Indian captainRohit Sharma slammed a recordseventhcentury in an ODI WorldCup as India defeated
Afghanistan by eight wickets and90 balls to spare in match no. 9of the ICC World Cup 2023 atthe Arun Jaitley Stadium, here onWednesday. Rohit scored 131after Jasprit Bumrah’s spell of 4/39 limited Afghans to 271/8
despite a fighting 80 by skipperHasmatullah Shahidi.The firework-filled inningssaw records galore by Rohit
Sharma, who became the jointfastestto 1000 runs in a WorldCup (tied with David Warner at19 innings each), surpassing ChrisGayle’s record of most sixes(553), most centuries in a 50-overWorld Cup (7) and the fastest
century by an Indian at the WorldCup (63 balls) – in that order -during the course of his 31st ODI
century.Chasing the target, RohitSharma unleashed himself on theAfghan bowling line-up from thethird over, when he clippedFazalhaq Farooqi for a boundarythrough the square leg region.Faroozi faced the wrath of Rohitin his next two overs as the Indianopener shot him for two sixesand four boundaries while Indiacrossed the 50-run mark by the
beginning of the seventh over.Ishan Kishan was a merespectator at the other end asSharma reached his half-century
with a single in the next over.There was never any respite onthe offer for the Afghan bowlersin the powerplay as India reached94/0 by the end of the 10th over.The Indian captain was not outon 77 in just 43 deliveries.Rohit appeared to drop hisintensity a bit after the firstpowerplay but soon wreakedhavoc at spinner Mujeeb Ur
Rahman, who was taken to thecleaners in the 14th over with three boundaries. The skipper soon entered the 90s and broughtup his century in the 18th overwhile India crossed the 150-runmark with Kishan also closing onhis maiden World Cup halfcentury.Kishan, however, couldn’trealise the mark on the day as hefell at 47 in a soft dismissal to
Rashid Khan, who ended the156-run stand in the 19th over.The wicket was also a reminderhat Afghanistan skipper
Hasmatullah Shahidi missed animportant trick in his book bynot introducing his best bowlerto the game early in the
powerplay.Rohit continued his onslaughtwith Virat Kohli as the duo addeda further 49 runs for the secondwicket to take India past 200runs. The skipper’s innings cameto a fold at 131 runs off 84 balls(15 fours and five sixes) with
Rashid Khan castling the batterin the 26th over.The damage, however, wasalready done as by the time Rohitwent back to the pavilion, Indianeeded mere 67 runs with 24

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