In their second clash of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023, the hosts for the season, India locked horns with Afghanistan on October 11, Wednesday. In their respective season openers, India took down five-time World Champions Australia while Afghanistan were coming on the back of a loss against Bangladesh. The game started with Hashmatullah Shahidi winning the toss and chose to bat first.
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In the match that was highly anticipated due to the famous rivalry between Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq, Shahidi and Co. posted a score of 272 runs with a loss of eight wickets. The Indians enjoyed some early successes in the form of Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmat Shah. It wasn't until the skipper's inning of 80 runs that their side gained some strength, as the two-time champions were on absolute fire in the match. The Indian bowling department with the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, made us believe that the hosts were in no mood to let the match slip out of their hands at any point in time.
In the second innings, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and rising star Ishan Kishan opened their side's innings, and while Kishan was forced to go back to the pavilion after scoring 47 off 47, Sharma gave the game his all. The Indian captain scored his 31st ODI and seventh World Cup century before leaving at 131 runs off 84 runs.
The iconic batter Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer remained unbeaten at 55 off 56 balls and 25 runs off 23 balls respectively, to give the Indian side their second consecutive win in the tournament as they took down their rivals by eight wickets . Apart from brilliant efforts put in by both sides, the 9th match of the tournament also saw Virat Kohli and Naveen Ul Haq resolving their issues. The kind of game played by the 2011 World Cup winners was a clear statement that are in no mood to lose the title this time.
