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regular-article-logo Saturday, 04 May 2024

T20 World Cup: Virender Sehwag praises India's positive intent against Afghanistan

The Sultan of Multan said "fielding was really good and our team took really good catches"

Our Bureau Published 04.11.21, 02:04 PM
Virender Sehwag

Virender Sehwag File Photo.

After a disheartening drubbing at the hands of arch-rivals Pakistan and New Zealand, India bounced back with full force versus Afghanistan on Wednesday, winning the encounter by 66 runs.

The praises are coming thick and fast from the who's who in the cricketing fraternity. And now, Virender Sehwag is the latest member to join the club.

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In an interaction with Cricbuzz, the Sultan of Multan said, "I think when things fall your way, the body language automatically changes... Today, we were playing against a team where we could have picked ourselves up had the body language been down. There was positive intent in both batting and bowling. Fielding was really good and our team took really good catches", he said.

The road ahead

Despite the annihilation of Afghanistan, India's semifinal prospects remain hanging in the balance. The situation remains do or die for Virat Kohli's band of superstars as they head into their fourth match in the Super 12 stage.

Pakistan have already made the semifinals with four straight wins and New Zealand are favoured to join the Men in Green in the last-four stage from Group 2. However, a loss for the Kiwis against either Namibia on Friday or Afghanistan next week, and India will have their tails up.

India will, though, look to focus on what is within their control and not get bogged down by the talks around scenarios and eventualities.

While they cannot impact the result of other teams' group matches, a big win against Scotland is definitely within India's reach.

After their twin failures against arch-rivals Pakistan and bogey team New Zealand, the Indian batters struck form against an Afghanistan bowling attack considered pretty good by the cricket fraternity.

Rohit admits poor decision-making

Rohit did admit that some of the "decision matking" wasn't correct and attributed it to the fatigue factor with the team being on the road for a least a week.

Hitman, his opening partner KL Rahul, and the swashbuckling duo of Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya, fired against the Afghans and they will fancy their chances of doing an encore on Friday evening.

The last two if they get a chance to bat as the likes of skipper Kohli are slotted above them in the line-up. Back in the team after missing the New Zealand game, Suryakumar Yadav will be there as well to bolster the batting, and so will be all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.

If the batting was all about aggression, India's bowling too delivered against Afghanistan, with seasoned off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin signalling his T20I return after a four-year gap with an excellent spell.

(With PTI inputs)

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