Virat Kohli described India’s nerve-shredding win in Southampton as “right up there” after Mohammad Shami’s hat-trick provided a bitter twist to what promised to be an Afghanistan World Cup fairytale.
Shami took the 10th hat-trick in World Cups, and the first by an Indian since Chetan Sharma in 1987, to remove the final three Afghanistan batters and seal an 11-run win in an absorbing, low-scoring encounter.
Afghanistan’s impressive collection of spinners had earlier restricted India’s in-form batting line-up to 224-8 on a pitch which made a repeat of their early-tournament fireworks nigh-on impossible.
Kohli afterwards pointedly noted his team-mates’ failure to heed that fact, but the India skipper was encouraged to see his side dig out victory from an unpromising halfway position.
“This game was very important for us,” he said. “It didn’t go as planned, but when things don’t go your way you need to show character, bounce back and fight until the last ball.
“That shows the character of our team, and we can take a lot of heart and confidence forward.”
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Jasprit Bumrah took two wickets in an over at a key point of the Afghanistan run chase[/caption]
Kohli was one of few batsmen to get to grips with a tacky surface, his 67 the game’s highest individual score, and he afterwards claimed “playing with a straight bat” was the key to prospering even as a string of his colleagues perished to cross-batted shots.
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The bowlers came to their rescue, Jasprit Bumrah returning at a key point in the Afghanistan innings to strike twice in an over and then keeping the score down at the death to leave Shami with 16 runs to defend off the final six balls.
Kohli said of Bumrah, “He’s a bowler that can do damage at any stage of the innings,” before adding of Shami, “He was really, really good. He was making the ball do more than anyone else as far as fast bowlers were concerned.”
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India, still unbeaten after four wins, next face West Indies at Old Trafford on Thursday.
