ICC World Cup 2023: India seal comfortable win against Afghanistan riding on Rohit Sharma's sparkling ton

Rohit Sharma oozed class and elegance en route to a recordingbreaking hundred leading India to an emphatic eightwicket win over Afghanistan in the ODI World Cup on WednesdayHasmatullah Shahidis dogged 80 and the young Azmatullah Omarazais gutsy 62 took Afghanistan to 272 for eight after opting to batOn a batting beauty India skipper Rohit 131 off 84 was unstoppable and flaunted his envious range of strokesHis record seventh World Cup hundred off 63 balls helped India gun down the target in 35 overs giving a big boost to their net runrate ahead of their third World Cup fixture against archrivals Pakistan on October 14There are few sights better than Rohit going about his business in full flow and that was on full display at the Feroz Shah Kotla grounds hereAhead of his third World Cup appearance Rohit had spoken about playing a highrisk game and on Wednesday he reaped high rewards for that fearless approachA clear sign of that intent was when he walked down the track to hit leftarm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi for a flat six over wide long off in the fifth over of the chase completing 1000 World Cup runs in the process It was also the fastest hundred by an Indian in the 50over mega eventFor the majority of their 156run opening stand Ishan Kishan 47 off 47 had the best view of Rohits artistry from the non strikers endThe India skipper brought up his fifty with a rasping strike over midon off Naveen Ul Haq Like the rest of the bowlers Naveen too was guilty of pitching it short far too often and Rohit got his second maximum by pulling him over backward square legOne of his five sixes came via the wrong un off star spinner Rashid Khan who was held back till the 15th over with Rohit on the rampage Out of his 16 fours his gentle push between cover and the midoff fielder off Naveen was most soothing to the eyesWith India racing to 154 in 18 overs the game was heading in only one directionRashid was once again the only Afghanistan bowler who made an impact removing a wellset Kishan and Rohit both falling to his googlyVirat Kohli 55 not out off 56 too looked good and took the team over the line with an uppish straight drive over the bowlers head He and Naveen hugging each other during the chase was an indication that the duo had very well moved on from their altercation in the IPL earlier this yearEarlier Afghanistan skipper Shahidi walked the talk as Afghanistan put up a muchimproved effort with the bat compared to what they had managed in their tournament opener against BangladeshHis 121run stand for the fourth wicket with 23yearold Omarzai allowed Afghanistan to post a fighting totalAt 211 for 4 in 40 overs Afghanistan looked likely to get close to 300 but India bowlers did well to stem the flow of runsJasprit Bumrah was by far the best bowler for the home team delivering in both the powerplay and the death overs to end with figures of 4 for 39 in 10 overs This was Bumrahs best figures in a World Cup gameAlso Read Is Indias demolition of Australia a sign of things to comeThe ball did not turn much but Kuldeep Yadav ended with tidy figures of one for 40 in 10 oversIt wasnt the smoothest of starts for Afghanistan who reached 48 for one in the opening PowerplayWhile Bumrah got the ball to talk in his first spell of four overs but Mohammed Siraj leaked 28 runs off his first 24 balls Siraj ended up conceding 76 runs off his nine oversThe opening duo of Ibrahim Zadran 22 and Rahmanullah Gurbaz 21 collected five boundaries off Siraj whose ploy of consistently targeting the stumps did not pay offBumrah got the breakthrough with a short of length ball on the offstump that straightened a shade to take the outside edge off Zadrans batGurbaz and Rahmat Shah 16 falling in a space of three balls brought Shahdi and Omarzai in the middleThe much younger Omarzai promoted up the order found the odd boundary while Shahidi played second fiddleThe highlight of Omarzais innings was the ease with which he played the Indian spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep He dispatched Kuldeep for two sixes on either side of the straight boundary in the 25th overHis third six off Kuldeep came in the 34th over when he picked the Indian spinners wrong un and deposited it over long onShahidi on the other hand was good with cut against the pacers and his stand out shot was the ramp off Hardik PandyaRashid did come up with some crisp blows towards the end but Afghanistan only managed 61 runs in the last 10 overs with the loss of four wicketsWith inputs from agencies