Already out of the competition, India signed off from Asia Cup 2022 on a high with a 101- run knocking of Afghanistan in their last Super Four match at the Dubai International Stadium on Thursday.
In a dead rubber, talismanic batter Virat Kohli offered Indian fans lots of factors to be delighted. As captain Rohit Sharma was rested, Kohli was promoted to open the batting. What followed next was something which anybody might have anticipated, leaving Kohli himself amazed.
Kohli ended his dry spell of not scoring a century in global cricket for 1020 days with a mind-blowing career-best 122 off simply 61 balls, laced with 12 fours and 6 6s, at a strike-rate of 200.
After a rollicking opening stand of 119 off 76 balls, with stand-in captain KL Rahul making 65 of those runs, Kohli sped up surprisingly from 59 off 40 balls to get his next 63 runs simply 21 balls to score an enduring 71 st global century. On the back of Kohli’s century, India made a massive 212/ 2.
Then, senior pacer Bhuvneshwar’s spell of 5/4, with great deals of swing and striking the best locations regularly, took apart the Afghanistan obstacle, ultimately limiting them to 111/ 8 in 20 overs.
It was a day to forget for Afghanistan, who showed up into this video game less than 24 hours after a one-wicket heartbreak versus Pakistan in Sharjah. They dropped catches, including of Kohli on 28, looked jaded and just weren’t at their finest.
Brief Scores: India 212/ 2 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 122 not out, KL Rahul 62; Fareed Malik 2/57) beat Afghanistan 111/ 8 in 20 overs (Ibrahim Zadran 64 not out, Mujeeb Ur Rahman 18; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 5/4, Deepak Hooda 1/3) by 101 runs.