If we were playing any other team, this post would have been sarcastic, a pinch humorous, lots of mocking and perhaps an insult here and there. But I’m not going to do any of that here since we just played Afghanistan. Why? Mainly because I don’t want to.. you know.. DIE ?. Why are they even playing cricket in the first place? Has the world run out of places to blow up or something?? You can always try out neighbors (If you know what I mean). For those wondering what the Afghanistan cricket team looks like, a small description is that any player who couldn’t get into the Pakistan team, didn’t have enough money to travel to Bangladesh, was way too honest to be bribed and fix matches in Pakistan is in the Afghanistan team. This was expected to be a walk in the park for the Indian team. It was a walk in the park, Jurassic Park.

The perfect start with Dhoni losing the toss and the Afghanistan captain making our day by electing to bowl first. A flat track with nothing in the track and they choose to bowl first? That’s the first bomb of the day. We definitely didn’t see that one coming after 40 overs already having been played on the same pitch. What do you get when Shakti Kapoor decides to keep a cool nickname and shortens his name? SHAPOOR.





That is the name of the opening bowler for Afghanistan and he certainly showcased his talent by picking up our openers early. A steady middle order starring an in form Virat Kohli with a half century and some good blows here and there helped us CREEP to a modest total of 159. Any fan who knows his cricket would tell you that’s not what you come to expect when your team plays one of the ‘minnows’. Add to this the extreme run of the green going our way with the bazillion dropped catches. If I had to describe it, picture rajpal yadav starring with sunny leone in a double role in a movie directed by emraan hashmi. We played 7 proper batsmen and yet put on a 159, the only positive aspect about that is that a lot of these batsmen can bowl part-time.





Cometh the hour, cometh the man they say and Yuvi certainly took this literally. He might have missed out with the bat but his 3 wickets the ball proved timely, precious and most needed. With so many part time spinners in the team, it’s a little calculated risk that we’re taking and Yuvraj certainly proved his mettle once again. Couple that with a great economical yet effective spell by Ashwin and you have the 2 primary reasons for India’s victory. Credit however goes to the Kabulis (yea that’s what we’re calling the Afghans). They played out of their skins and certainly proved more than a good match for the Indian team. A blitz by Nabi (no, not the belly button) towards the end had our hearts in our mouth but it wasn’t enough as a decent last over by Balaji saw us through. With that spirit and determination, they could probably convince Baba Ram Dev to star in the above mentioned movie with Yadav and Leone (probably not but you get the point I’m trying to make).





Had it not been for those dropped catches and lackluster fielding, it might have been one of those upsets that everyone loves to talk about. For now though we still await our first upset of this t-20 world cup but if this is a sign of things to come I’m pretty sure we’re not that far away. (Secretly hoping it’s England)