Rohit Sharma-led Indian team has sealed the 3-match T20I series against Afghanistan by winning the first two T20Is of the series.
The second T20I was played yesterday at Holkar Stadium, Indore and team India won the match by 6 wickets. The toss was won by the hosts and they put the visitors to bat first, Afghanistan managed to put up a score of 172 runs on the scoreboard with the help of a brilliant knock by Gulbadin Naib (57 runs, 35 balls, 5 fours & 4 sixes).
While Indian pacer Arshdeep Singh took 3 wickets, Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi took 2-2 wickets each and Shivam Dube took one wicket.
India got off to a bad start as it lost skipper Rohit Sharma for a golden duck but Yashasvi Jaiswal played a superb innings of 68 runs for which he played 34 balls and his innings included 5 fours & 6 sixes. The Player of the Match of the first T20I, Shivam Dube once again played a blistering knock of 63 runs for which he played 32 deliveries and his innings included 5 fours & 4 sixes. Co-incidentally, the Mumbai cricketer once again remained not out just like the first T20I. The Indian team managed to chase the target successfully in less than 16 overs with six wickets in hand and now India will look forward to whitewash the series by winning the third and the final T20 which will be played on 17th Jan at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
After the match, Shivam Dube had a chat with the mediapersons and he said that his skipper is happy with his performance and Rohit said to Shivam that he played well.
Talking about his partnership of 92 runs with Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shivam Dube said that they both are stroke players and they both planned to attack the bowlers and finish the match early but his (Shivam) role was to attack the spinners mainly. Shivam said that though they didn’t have any target in their minds, they should have finished the game earlier.
Shivam also reveals that other than his batting skill, he has also worked on making himself mentally ready to play T20I because dealing with pressure properly is quite important and the batter should also know which bowler to hit. He adds that it is not important to hit every ball in a T20 match.
Shivam Dube says that he has worked on his bowling as well but things didn’t go right for him in the second T20I as he gave 36 runs in 3 overs and got one wicket only.
Meanwhile, Axar Patel got the Player of the Match award for his superb bowling.
Will Afghanistan bounce back in the 3rd T20I? What do you think?