Mohammed Shami Hat-trick Seals Narrow Win For India against Afghanistan

India enrolled their fourth win of the ICC World Cup 2019 against Afghanistan at Southampton on Saturday (June 22) yet the match wasn't really chosen until the absolute last over when Mohammed Shami shut the procedures with a cap trap. 

Afghanistan required 16 in the last finished and when Mohammad Nabi hit Shami for a limit off the absolute first ball, the game still seemed as though it could swing in any case. 

However, when Nabi holed out to Hardik Pandya at long-on off the third ball, it was the first of a triple blow in the final over that ended the match.

Shami would clean up the stumps of both Aftab Alam and Mujeeb ur Rahman to finish the game and become the second Indian bowler after Chetan Sharma in 1987 to take a World Cup hat-trick.

But while the last 3 wickets fell with relative ease, Afghanistan will pride themselves on an effort that saw them push the two-time world champions to the absolute brink.

India had got an early breakthrough when a short ball from Shami got rid of Hazratullah Zazai as it stayed low and crashed into his stumps.

A 44-run partnership between Gulbadin Naib and Rahmat Shah stabilized the ship for the Afghans but when the former was caught by Vijay Shankar off Hardik Pandya’s bowling, India were right back in the game.

Shah then put together another good stand with Hashmatullah Shahidi but the big partnership that they clearly wanted, continued to elude them as Shah was the next man to depart courtesy of Jasprit Bumrah, who got him to play one to Yuzvendra Chahal in the deep.

He then removed Shahidi in the same over and the match looked all but over for Afghanistan.

Nabi and Asghar Afghan held down the fort until the latter was clean bowled by Chahal, bringing the hard-hitting Najibullah Zadran to the crease.

Zadran also took



the patient route but did find the boundary on a couple of occasions before holing out to Chahal off Pandya’s bowling.

A cameo from Rashid Khan and a useful stand between Nabi and Ikram Ali Khil ensured Afghanistan took the game deep but it wasn’t to be in the end.

Earlier, some good spin bowling from Afghanistan on a slow track meant India could only register 224-8 in their quota of 50 overs.

Virat Kohli's India struggled to impose themselves on the Afghan bowlers after winning the toss and choosing to bat in the sunshine, failing to get out of second gear on England's south coast.

In-form opener Rohit Sharma, who has scored two hundreds so far in the tournament, was dismissed for just one by off-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman as India made a sluggish start.

The rest of India's powerful top order all got established, with skipper Kohli making 67 from 63 balls, but none went on to play a decisive innings for the two-time champions in front of thousands of their fanatical supporters.

They hit just 16 boundaries -- including only one six.

Off-spinner Mujeeb was particularly impressive, conceding just 26 runs in his 10 overs, while Rashid bounced back from the most expensive spell in World Cup history against England to take 1-38.

Kohli, who scored half-hundreds of years against Australia and Pakistan, achieved his third continuous fifty of the competition off 48 balls, with four fours yet was gotten by Shah off the bowling of Nabi. 

MS Dhoni attempted to discover any familiarity, hitting 28 off 52 balls before he was baffled by Ikram off the bowling of Rashid. 

Kedar Jadhav achieved his fifty off 66 balls, giving the scorecard a look of decency however the absence of catalyst toward the finish of the innings implied the all out India needed to safeguard was a low one.