Shivam Dube shines on comeback to script comfortable win for India at home

Indias fringe players led by Shivam Dube made the opportunity count to set up a sixwicket win over Afghanistan in the IND vs AFG 1st T20I on ThursdayA lively 68run partnership off 43 balls between the seasoned Mohammad Nabi 42 off 27 and youthful Azmatullah Omarzai 29 off 22 lifted Afghanistan to 158 for five after India dominated the powerplayThe total posted was not enough in good batting conditions as India got home comfortably in 173 oversDube playing his first T20 since the Asian Games and Tilak Varma 26 off 22 shared a 44run stand off 29 balls to give Indian innings momentum after losing the openers inside four oversRohit Sharma 0 returning to T20s after 14 months and Shubman Gill 23 got involved in an avoidable mixup that limited the Indian skippers stay to just two balls The usually calm and cool Rohit did not hide his anger on this occasion as Gill did not pay heed to his call for a quick singleGill was not able to stay for long but Varma and Dube were able to take the innings forward and India did not look back from there onDube who is seen as a back up to injury prone Hardik Pandya used his long levers efficiently and his disdainful drives on the off side stood out He ended the game in style with a straight six and four in the fine leg regionJitesh Sharma 31 off 20 also gave a good account of himself before Rinku Singh 16 not out off 9 joined Dube in the middle and took the team homeEarlier a strokefilled partnership between Nabi and Omarzai was just what Afghanistan needed after India reduced the visitors to 57 for three in 10 overs amid chilly conditions at the PCA StadiumAlso ReadTributes flow in for SavlaOpeners Rahamanullah Gurbaz 23 off 28 and skipper Ibrahim Zadran 25 off 22 could only find four boundaries in the powerplayThe start of the IND vs AFG 1st T20I was delayed by a few minutes as a flickering blue light around the sightscreen distracted GurbazPacer Arshdeep Singh opened the innings with a maiden before the spinners got into the game as early as the fourth overAxar Patel who ended up as the stand out bowler for India with figures of 40232 had Gurbaz stumped with a fast and straight delivery after the opener slog swept him for a sixZadran was the next to depart as he smashed an innocuous ball from Dube straight to India skipper Rohit Sharma at cover It was only the second ball of his opening spellRahmat Shah making his T20 debut after playing 106 ODIs for Afghanistan chopped on to stumps a flatter one from AxarAfghanistan badly needed a move on and that came via the experience of Nabi and Omarzai who had impressed with his allround abilities in the ODI World Cup in IndiaWhile the toporder struggled to rotate strike Omarzai and Nabi showed their teammates how to build a T20 inningsBoth targeted Ravi Bishnoi and Mukesh Kumar in the middle oversNabis backtoback sixes off Mukesh stood out in his quickfire knock He first made room to smash him over extra cover and waited still for the second ball to dispatch it over midwicketNajibullah Zadran 19 not out off 11 and Karim Janat 9 not out off 5 took the total past 150India dropped three catches in the biting cold of Mohali Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was unavailable for selection due to a sore right groinWith agency inputs