Shubman Gill’s ball-watching folly leads to Rohit Sharma’s run-out

India gunned down Afghanistan’s underwhelming total of 158 in the opening T20I in Mohali with 15 balls to spare and six wickets left in the tank to go 1-up in the three-match rubber.

The hosts did lose their openers within the powerplay – Rohit Sharma was run out and Gill stumped – but Shivam Dube along with Tilak Verma (26 off 22) put the innings back on track while Jitesh Sharma (31 off 20) did his bit to bring India closer to the target. Afghanistan were about 20-25 runs shy of a par score and the fact that they even reached 158 was largely thanks to Mohammad Nabi (42 off 27) whose counterattack buoyed Afghanistan after a slow start.

On a good batting surface with negligible movement upfront and zilch signs of spin, Afghanistan were strangely circumspect when it came to their scoring intent in the powerplay. Only 33 runs came in the first six overs without a single wicket lost, and the sluggish initiation proved to be significant to the eventual result.