India began its World T20 campaign in a relatively sedate note. They did what they were expected to do. Albeit in a warmup fashion. The IPL stars were sedate, the batting was not the way we have expected to see.
The fast bowlers bowled steady bouncers and got 5 wkts to short balls. Perhaps sending a message to other team highlighting the weakness of Af team against short balls.
Nehra was the man of the match for his 3/19.
Noor Ali was only Af batsman who batted decently and his partnership with StanikZai was the only highlight of Af batting which struggled to pick up the tempo.
Harbhajan failed to get a single wicket and Jadeja bowled within his usual limitations to keep the run flows in check. Kumar and Zaheer were adequate although later bowled quite a lot of full tosses in hunt of elusive yorkers.
Gambhir and Raina fell early before Yuvraj and Vijay propelled the team to the win. It seems Gambhir needs presence of Sehwag down the other end to play well. 4 off 6 is not what we expect of the best Indian batsman of 2008 and 2009. He is also the highest run getter for country in T20Is. And Raina though he got 67 runs in the IPL final against the likes of Zaheer, Harbhajan and Malinga, he failed to milk the weakest bowling he's faced till date in T20Is after 1 four and 1 six.
Still waiting for the day when he would display his IPL form in international format.
Yuvraj is slowly getting back to the groove. Vijay carried on his IPL form in this game albeit with a little low strike rate. MSD hit 16 runs in 4 balls to secure a win that would seal super 8s spot but would leave a lot to be desired to top the group in the game against Saffers today.
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