MUMBAI: Afghanistan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz was in such rampaging form in the first ODI on Saturday that he would have unsettled the most seasoned bowlers. For India’s debutants, pacer Gurnoor Brar and left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey, it was akin to walking into a raging storm after captain Shubman Gill opted to bowl in the rain-truncated opening game of the three-match series at the HPCA Stadium, Dharamsala, on Saturday.
While Gurbaz left his stamp on the game with a blazing 52-ball 102, the Indian team management will have reasons to be pleased by how the newcomers shaped up on the international stage in the 25-overs-a-side match.
In a promising show, Brar (3/27) and Dubey (3/47) shared six wickets. With Nitish Reddy and Arshdeep Singh too striking two crucial blows each, Afghanistan were bowled for 194, preventing them from building on Gurbaz’s heroics. In reply, India finished on 195/3 in 22.5 overs.
The total proved insufficient against the strong India line-up. Led by captain Gill’s classy 84* (66 balls), India completed a clinical seven-wicket win. The only cause for concern during the chase was an injury scare to opener Rohit Sharma, who took a blow on his right wrist trying to pull a short ball from Azmatullah Omarzai.
Debutants shine
Sharing the new ball with Arshdeep, strapping fast bowler Brar had a dream start, taking just five balls to grab his first ODI wicket. He provided the breakthrough by inducing a leading edge off opener Ibrahim Zadran. Clocking speeds in the high 140s in his first spell, there were signs of the making of a good fast bowler. His first over yielded two runs and a wicket, his second over had six runs and a leg bye; his third over had eight runs. His figures at that stage was 3-0-16-1. He finished strongly, picking up two wickets bowling the last over of the innings.
Dubey overcame a tough initiation into international cricket to produce the goods when he was brought on for his second spell.
Coming under attack from Gurbaz, Dubey’s 16 runs were the joint-most conceded by an Indian bowler in his first over on a men’s ODI debut since 2001.
Once Gurbaz was out, Gill got back Dubey in the 17th over and the spinner immediately took his first wicket. He deceived the set Hashmatullah Shahidi (27 runs), getting him to hole out to deep midwicket, in an over where Dubey conceded just one run. Bowling the 22nd over, the left-arm spinner produced a double-wicket over, removing big-hitter Azmatullah Omarzai too after he had raced to 26 off 15 balls.
Gurbaz Show
Afghanistan were reduced to 26/3 inside five overs but Gurbaz was unaffected. He clobbered the India bowlers to all corners of the ground to complete his century off just 48 balls, the fastest for an Afghanistan batter. Among his series of scintillating strokes, the flicked scoop over deep fine leg off Prasidh Krishna in the 11th over stood out. He picked the length ball outside off, got right across and inside the line of the ball, helping it deep into the stands.
His brilliant innings was brought to an end by a peach of a delivery, with the ever-improving Nitish Kumar Reddy nailing an in-swinging yorker to hit the base of middle-stump.