Virat Kohil hit four boundaries and two sixes in his 39-ball 50
A blistering Virat Kohli fifty helped India to manage a challenging target 160 runs for Afghanistan in their opening match of ICC World Twenty20 at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Wednesday.
Virat Kohli hit 50 off 39 balls and shared a 48-run fourth-wicket stand with Suresh Raina (38 off 33) as India recovered from the early dismissal of openers to post the total of 159-5.
Paceman Shapoor Zardan vindicated skipper Nowroz Mangal’s decision to bowl first and scalped openers Gautam Gambhir (10) and Virender Sehwag (8) early in the innings before Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh (18) repaired the damage with a 48-run third-wicket stand.
The recovery stand ended with the dismissal of Yuvraj, who mistimed Dawlat Zardan’s incoming delivery to gift a catch to Mohammad Nabi.
Virat Kohli and Raina then took the charge and, concentrating on the rotation of strike and propelling loose deliveries past rope, continued the march towards competitiveness.
Virat Kohli brought up his fifty off 38 balls with the help of four boundaries and two sixes but skied a catch to Nabi at deep long off Dawlat in the next delivery.
Nabi removed Raina in the final over, after the left added 34 runs for the fifth wicket stand with skipper MS Dhoni. Raina’s knock was studded with six boundaries.