India left-arm spinner Axar Patel delivered a crucial breakthrough in the second T20I against Afghanistan on Tuesday in Delhi, dismissing danger man Azmatullah Omarzai after enticing the batter into a mistimed lofted stroke.
Indian skipper Shreyas Iyer won the toss and chose to field first as the Men in Blue looked to wrap up the three-match series. Despite losing Rahmanullah Gurbaz in the second over, skipper Ibrahim Zadran took the attack to the opposition with a few well-timed boundaries.
However, India bounced back by picking up wickets at regular intervals. Patel also took his name to the scoreboard by dismissing Omarzai, who was looking to accelerate. Having shown restraint early in his stay, Omarzai targeted Axar’s flatter trajectory, aiming to clear the boundary rope.
Anticipating the charge, Axar darted in an arm delivery that came in fast. Omarzai gave himself some room and tried to swing it over mid-wicket and only managed to get a leading edge that went high in the air. Tilak Varma settled under the ball and completed the catch cleanly just inside the boundary padding.
The dismissal reduced Afghanistan to 96/5, with six overs left in the innings.
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Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi’s late impetus stretches Afghanistan’s total past 150
Two senior Afghanistan players, Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi, gave the team a late push to take the total past 150. The two accelerated well in the final overs and added 48 runs for the seventh wicket.
Rashid struck three boundaries and one six for his 28 off 16 deliveries, striking at a rate of 175. Nabi, on the other hand, struck at 142.86, scoring 20 off just 14 balls, including two boundaries and a six.
Riding on their heroics, Afghanistan posted 159/8 in 20 overs, hitting 59 runs off the last six overs. India will have to score 160 to win the series. Nitish Kumar Reddy was the pick of the Indian bowlers, returning with figures of 3/24 in three overs.
Edited by Ankush Das