India bid to keep semis hopes alive against buoyant Afghanistan; New Zealand eye Scotland scalp
Scotland's Chris Greaves (L) celebrates the dismissal of Zane Green. Hamid Hassan (C) is congratulated by a teammate. Kane Williamson talks after wining the toss as Virat Kohli watches. AP
Mohammad Abdullah, Senior Sports Reporter
Hosts India will bid to keep their slim hopes of semi-finals alive with a convincing victory against Afghanistan in their T20 World Cup match on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.
After two losses in their first two games, India’s chances of making it to the semi-final have dwindled considerably. They will have to win all their remaining matches, that too with good margin.
Even if they go on to win three remaining matches against Afghanistan, Namibia and Scotland, they will have to wait and watch for the other results to go their way.
India were beaten by Pakistan by ten wickets in their opener. After that, their match against New Zealand was billed as a virtual semi-final as only two teams from both the groups will advance to the semis.
India, Pakistan and New Zealand were the top contenders for the last four spot while Namibia, Scotland and Afghanistan were considered as the perennial makeweights.
However, an underwhelming start to the high profile tournament coupled with a followed-up under par performance in their next game has put the hosts’ campaign in peril.
India have been beaten and bruised badly, which has left their morale lacerated and they will have to recollect themselves to play as a unit if they want to avoid an upset defeat against underdogs Afghanistan and an early shameful exit from the tournament.
India will have depend on Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma with others expected to play their roles. Except Kohli no Indian batsman has scored a fifty in the tourney.
India’s batting failed to click in both the matches as they could post 151 and 110 against Pakistan and New Zealand respectively. In both the games, pacers did the damage to leave India reeling and they could never recover from a bad start.
But, Afghanistan pose a different kind of challenge. Their strength lies in spin. They have a world famous spin trio of Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb-ur-Rahman.
An upbeat Afghanistan are buoyant with confidence after two wins and one loss from their three matches. They made the most of their clashes against Scotland and Namibia, which improved their run rate marginally.
Rashid and Mujeeb shared nine wickets between them against Scotland to bundle the opponents out for a paltry 60 runs and help Afghanistan register a thumping 160-run win. They also defeated Namibia by a huge margin of 62 runs, this time around their pacers delivered, led by Naveen-ul-Haq and Hamid Hassan.
Both the quicks took three wickets each to lead the rout as Afghanistan notched up second win, which must have left them grinning and fancying their chances of a maiden semi-final appearance.
Afghans also gave a tough fight to group leaders Pakistan as they were in cruise control of the game before Asif Ali played a blitzkrieg innings to steer Pakistan to safety.
They have a power-packed batting line-up. Afghanistan sent out a warning in their opening match. Hazartaullah Zazai, who rose to form with six sixes in an over in an Afghanistan Premier League match in Sharjah, along with Mohammad Shahzad can give a strong start.
While Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Najibullah Zadran and Mohammad Nabi can exploit the start to propel the score to a healthy total. But Afghanistan have been depleted by the retirement of seasoned campaigner Asghar Afghan.
The technical committee of the World Cup has approved Sharafudin Ashraf as a replacement for Afghan. Sharafudin, who was a reserve player in case of a COVID-19 emergency, has played 17 ODIs and nine T20s.
In the other match of the day, New Zealand, will look to close I on a semi-final berth by beating minnows Scotland. New Zealand have lost one match against Pakistan and beaten India in the other to boost their hopes.
In their remaining three matches, they face Afghanistan, Scotland apart and Namibia. If they win all their matches, New Zealand will book a semi-final berth without bothering to wait for other results.
Scotland have failed to replicate their performance of the first round and have been defeated by both Afghanistan and Namibia in the Super 12 stage.
They will look to take some positive from of the tournament and pull off an upset, which may go down as modern folklore in their cricketing history to inspire the aspirants of next generation.
With T20s being the game of uncertainties, no team can be ruled out and if the so-called underdogs do not have the potential to make it to the semis yet they can ruin others’ campaign by springing a surprise or two.
