India beat Afghanistan by 66 runs, keep chance of reaching T20 WC semis alive

ABU DHABI: India beat Afghanistan by 66 runs in their Super 12 match of T20 World Cup here on Wednesday to keep their slim chance of reaching semifinals alive.

Openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul hit half centuries to help India post 210 for 2 after being invited to bat and then restricted Afghanistan to 144 for 7 in their 20 overs.

Mohammed Shami took three wickets while Ravichandran Ashwin got two. Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja grabbed one wicket each.

For Afghanistan, Karim Janat top-scored with 42 not out while Mohammad Nabi contributed 35. Earlier, Rohit (74) and Rahul (69) stitched 140 runs from 14.4 overs for the opening wicket to set up India's big total.

Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant Pant remained not out on 35 and 27 respectively.

For Afghanistan, Karim Janat and Gulbadin Naib took a wicket each.

Brief Scores: India: 210 in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma 74, KL Rahul 69; Karim Janat 1/7, Gulbadin Naib 1/39).

Afghanistan: 144 for 7 in 20 overs (Karim Janat 42 not out, Mohammad Nabi 35; Mohammed Shami 3/32, Ravichandran Ashwin 2/14).