Twitter Reactions: Afghanistan hold India to a thrilling tie in a nail-biting encounter

What a match it turned out to be! Rashid Khan and Ravindra Jadeja took it until the end and finally the match was tied. Afghanistan tried their best to come close and this time they came up with a tied game. Rashid was the champion again for them and one has to feel for Jadeja who absorbed all the pressure and had almost won it for his team. Eventually, one would have to say that it was a perfect result as no team deserved to lose.

The new openers for the game, KL Rahul and Ambati Rayudu looked in good touch from the word go. They attacked the medium pace bowlers of the opposition and tried to put them under the pressure. Both got to their respective half-centuries and added 110 runs for the opening wicket in 17.1 overs. Rayudu was picked by Nabi and soon Rashid Khan was into the action to leave them down at 127/2.

The proceedings slowed down and the spinners started to take control as the innings progressed. Dinesh Karthik played a calm hand of 44 runs but got out at the wrong time and it all came down to the nerves. The unfortunate run-out of Kedar Jadhav and some late wickets took things very close. It all went down to last three overs with India needing 17 runs in three overs. India had Ravindra Jadeja playing sensibly and there were a couple of Rashid’s overs.

Continuous fall of wickets brought it down to seven runs off the final over with one wicket in hand for India. Rashid was the bowler and Jadeja was the batsman to do the job for their respective teams. The latter smashed a boundary which was controversial in the end and Jadeja somehow played the penultimate delivery in the air only for the match to get tied.

Shahzad propels Afghanistan

Earlier in the day, Asghar Afghan won the toss and had no doubt in batting first. Mohammad Shahzad came out to bat with a new partner in Javed Ahmadi. However, the former was in the mood today and it seems that he wanted to make a statement before leaving the Asia Cup. He took the attack to India’s inexperienced bowling line-up. The debutant Deepak Chahar was in the line first and then Khaleel Ahmed came in the firing line.

With the pacers going for runs, Dhoni introduced Ravindra Jadeja into the attack and it reaped rewards straight away as Ahmadi was stumped. Soon Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi were sent back by Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav respectively. The latter also sent back Afghanistan skipper for a golden duck to leave them reeling at 82/4.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Shahzad was going strong at the other end. It looked like he was batting altogether on a different planet. He was tonking the ball at will and as he got a sensible partner in Gulbadin Naib, they rotated the strike for some time as well. However, Shahzad got to his fifth ODI century off just 88 deliveries and soaked in the applause from the crowd.

He got tired after some time though and was dismissed by Kedar Jadhav for 124. Mohammad Nabi was set until then as he went berserk in the death overs to propel his team to a fighting total of 252 runs for the loss of eight wickets. Unfortunately for them, it was not enough despite the fight put in by their bowlers.

Here’s how Twitter reacted during the match:

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