Rohit Sharma just made the day full records in this run chase. His destructive innings helped India to win the match against Afghanistan by 8 wickets.
Afghans scored 272/8 in 50 overs and in reply India chased down the target easily in 35 overs and scored 273/2.
Despite Sharma’s great record, one more key moment in the match was when Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq hugged each other during the match.
After winning the toss, Afghanistan opted to bat first.
The afghans started pretty well but lost three wickets at 63 runs. Then skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (80 runs) and Azmatullah Omarzai (62 runs) took the burden off as they scored 121 runs together for the 4th wicket. Shahidi hit the 3rd highest score in a World Cup for his team. Both of them started pretty slow as 3 wickets were already down early on. After slow progress, they start hitting the loose balls.
Omarzai was promoted up the order and he justified the decision well. Omarzai played 69 balls and hit 2 fours and 4 sixes in his knock, whereas Shahidi played 88 balls and hit 8 fours and a six. After their departure some small contributions by Mohammad Nabi (19 runs) and Rashid Khan (16 runs) at the end took the team total to 272 runs in 50 overs by losing 8 wickets.
Jasprit Bumrah the main pacer of the team, leading from the front and grabbed 4 wickets. Hardik Pandya got 2 wickets. Kuldeep Yadav and Shardul Thakur got 1 wicket each.
India got a destructive start by both the openers. Rohit Sharma (131 runs) and Ishan Kishan (47 runs) contributed 156 runs for the 1st wicket. Rohit created the most centuries (7) scored by a batsman in the World Cup by breaking the previous record of Sachin Tendulkar (6). Also he hit the fastest century (63 balls) by an Indian in the World Cup breaking the record of Kapil Dev (72 balls). The record does not end here also joined the fastest innings (19) to touch the 1000 runs in the World Cup.
Sharma in his 84 balls destructive knock hit 16 fours and 5 sixes. In the end, Virat Kohli (55 runs) and Shreyas Iyer (25 runs) took India to an easy win over Afghanistan by scoring 273 runs in 35 overs by losing 2 wickets only. Kohli smashed back to back half centuries in the tournament.
Rashid Khan was the only one from his side who got both the wickets.
Rohit Sharma, India, Player of the Match
“It was a good pitch to bat on, I just backed myself to play my natural game. I knew once I got my eye in, the wicket was going to get easier for me. Something that I have been working on for a long time. It’s a special feeling to get a World Cup hundred. Really happy with the bat. Don’t want to think too much, I don’t want to lose my focus. You need to make such things count. You gotta make it big.
Some of the shots were premeditated. I let my instincts take over at times, sometimes it really works well. It’s my job to make sure to get those starts especially in run chases. That’s something I have done in the past and something I love doing. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Just need to keep doing it and keep putting oppositions under pressure going forward.”