India vs Afghanistan: Shivam Dube's all-round effort in Mohali guides Men in Blue to six-wicket win in 1st T20I

Shivam Dube produced an all-round effort as India defeated Afghanistan by six wickets in the first of three T20Is at Mohali’s IS Bindra PCA Stadium on Thursday. Dube anchored India’s chase of the competitive 159-run target with an unbeaten 60 off 40 deliveries after returning figures of 1/9 from two overs with his medium pace as the Men in Blue collect a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Dube stitched valuable partnerships with Tilak Varma (26 off 22) and Jitesh Sharma (31 off 20) worth 44 and 45 respectively before finishing the job in the company of middle-order batter Rinku Singh, who remained unbeaten on 16 off 9 deliveries.

#TeamIndia takes the lead in #IDFCFirstBankT20ITrophy #JioCinemaSports #GiantsMeetGameChangers #INDvAFG pic.twitter.com/NfstiW1s4O

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Dube’s contributions and his partnerships helped India recover from a scare early in their chase, when they were reduced to 28/2 with openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill falling in the powerplay. It was a forgettable return to the shortest format after more than a year for Rohit, who was run-out for a two-ball duck after a horrible mix-up with Gill.

The usually calm and cool Rohit did not hide his anger on this occasion as Gill did not pay heed to his call for a quick single. Gill was not able to stay for long but Varma and Dube were able to take the innings forward and India did not look back from there on.

Dube, who is seen as a back up to injury prone Hardik Pandya, used his long levers efficiently and his disdainful drives on the off side stood out. He ended the game in style with a straight six and four in the fine leg region. Jitesh also gave a good account of himself before Rinku joined Dube in the middle and took the team home.

Earlier, a stroke-filled partnership between Nabi and Omarzai was just what Afghanistan needed after India reduced the visitors to 57 for three in 10 overs amid chilly conditions at the PCA Stadium.

Openers Rahamanullah Gurbaz (23 off 28) and skipper Ibrahim Zadran (25 off 22) could only find four boundaries in the powerplay.

The start of the game was delayed by a few minutes as a flickering blue light around the sightscreen distracted Gurbaz.

Pacer Arshdeep Singh opened the innings with a maiden before the spinners got into the game as early as the fourth over.

Axar Patel, who ended up as the stand out bowler for India with figures of 4-0-23-2, had Gurbaz stumped with a fast and straight delivery after the opener slog swept him for a six.

Zadran was the next to depart as he smashed an innocuous ball from Dube straight to India skipper Rohit at cover. It was only the second ball of his opening spell.

Rahmat Shah, making his T20I debut after playing 106 ODIs for Afghanistan, chopped on to stumps a flatter one from Axar.

Afghanistan badly needed a move on and that came via the experience of Nabi and Omarzai, who had impressed with his all-round abilities in the ODI World Cup in India.

While the top-order struggled to rotate strike, Omarzai and Nabi showed their teammates how to build a T20 innings.

Nabi power

The Afghan veteran is striking them hard in the 1st #INDvAFG T20I! #IDFCFirstBankT20ITrophy #JioCinemaSports #GiantsMeetGameChangers pic.twitter.com/BMMMJEnB3G

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Both targeted Ravi Bishnoi and Mukesh Kumar in the middle overs.

Nabi’s back-to-back sixes off Mukesh stood out in his quickfire knock. He first made room to smash him over extra cover and waited still for the second ball to dispatch it over mid-wicket.

Najibullah Zadran (19 not out off 11) and Karim Janat (9 not out off 5) took the total past 150.

India dropped three catches in the biting cold of Mohali.

Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was unavailable for selection due to a sore right groin.

Brief scores

Afghanistan 158/5 in 20 overs (Mohammed Nabi 42; Axar Patel 2/23) lost to India 159/4 in 17.3 overs (Shivam Dube 60*, Jitesh Sharma 31; Mujeeb Ur Rahman 2/21) by six wickets.

With inputs from PTI