India trounced Afghanistan by seven runs on a chilly Mohali night, with temperatures as low as seven degrees Celsius.
India took a 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan on Thursday after Axar Patel led the charge with the ball and Shivam Dube shone with the bat. After Rohit Sharma decided to bowl, Axar delivered figures of 2/23 as India reduced Afghanistan to 158/5. Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Rahmat Shah were both bowled out by Axar. Dube’s unbeaten 60 off 40 balls helped India cross the finish line in 17.3 overs while chasing 159. The playing conditions were not ideal because the temperature in Mohali dropped as low as 7 degrees Celsius. However, Axar and Dube excelled to give India a lead heading into the second game on Sunday in Indore.
Despite his outstanding spell, Axar noted that the cold temperature made his task significantly more harder.
“I wasn’t feeling the ball because it was very cold.” We knew it was winter and that it would be chilly, but I was only thinking about my bowling and how to put pressure on them. “There was a lot of dew, but I focused on my accuracy,” Axar remarked during the mid-innings performance.
Axar also revealed that he had requested the umpire whether he might wear a glove on his non-bowling arm, which the umpire denied.
“I had asked the umpire if I can wear glove in one hand, but he said no (Maine umpire se poocha tha ki main ek haanth me gloves pehen ke bowling kar lun, lekin unhone mana kar diya),” he went on to say.
Meanwhile, India’s Virat Kohli did not play due to “personal reasons,” and Afghanistan’s spin star Rashid Khan is still out of the series as he recovers from back surgery.
Kohli hasn’t played a Twenty20 International in over a year. He is scheduled to rejoin the team for the second game on Sunday at the Holkar Stadium in Indore.
