Lucknow, June 17: The Indian cricket team secured a commanding 170-run victory over Afghanistan in the second match of the ODI series at Ekana Stadium, taking an unassailable 2-0 lead. Captain Shubman Gill and wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan played pivotal roles, both scoring centuries. Gill was named Player of the Match for his outstanding performance.
After the match, Shubman Gill stated, “I had a target for this series. I want to bat for 40-45 overs. I knew I had to keep playing my shots with a score of 440-450 in mind. The ball was coming onto the bat nicely.”
Gill praised the team’s bowlers, expressing his satisfaction with how well the fast bowlers performed on these pitches.
During his innings, Gill experienced cramps, mentioning, “I had cramps in several parts of my body while batting; it’s a bit painful.”
Afghanistan’s captain Hashmatullah Shahidi remarked, “You can’t put everything on the toss. We weren’t good in bowling. We didn’t bowl well in the first 20 overs. You need to bowl in the right areas, which we failed to do. This has been a tough series for us. We have learned a lot. We need to improve our bowling. Hopefully, we will do well in Chennai.”
The Indian team scored 402 runs in 49.5 overs, thanks to Gill’s 154 runs off 110 balls, which included 2 sixes and 22 fours. Ishan Kishan contributed significantly with 125 runs from 79 balls, hitting 7 sixes and 14 fours. Gill was dismissed on the third ball of the 43rd over.
Chasing a daunting target of 403 runs, Afghanistan was bowled out for 232 runs in 44.3 overs, losing by a significant margin of 170 runs. Rahmat Shah was the top scorer for Afghanistan with 79 runs, while Sediqullah Atal scored 42, Rahmanullah Gurbaz made 41, and Ibrahim Zadran added 21 runs.
For India, Arshdeep Singh took 3 wickets, Gurnoor Barar also claimed 3, Prince Yadav took 2, and Washington Sundar took 1 wicket.
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