Sanju Samson’s 57 helps India clinch T20 series against Afghanistan with 7-wicket win
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NEW DELHI (AP) — Sanju Samson scored 57 off 22 balls as India beat Afghanistan by seven wickets to clinch their three-match T20 cricket series with a match to spare Tuesday.
Samson hit four sixes and seven fours en route to his first half-century since this year’s T20 World Cup final — where he was named player of the tournament.
His opening partner Abhishek Sharma scored 39 off 19 balls — including four sixes — as the duo amassed 88 off only 38 balls.
India finished with 163-3 in 14.5 overs. It had won the first T20 by seven wickets as well, at the same venue on Sunday. The final match is scheduled for Thursday.
Afghanistan is playing host in this series, in a unique arrangement, and for a second game running, it finished with an under-par score after India won the toss and opted to field.
All-rounder Nitish Reddy picked 3-24 in three overs as Afghanistan was restricted to 159-8 in 20 overs.
Samson and Sharma set a hectic pace as India raced to 82-0 in the power play. Afghanistan used spin in the power play as compared to the first game, but to no avail.
Rashid Khan came on after the power play, getting the breakthrough in the seventh over, as Sharma was out caught at deep midwicket.
Samson carried on to reach his seventh T20 half-century off 20 balls. Khan picked a second wicket in the seventh over, as Samson holed out to long off.
But India had powered its way to 100 in 7.1 overs.
Skipper Shreyas Iyer was Khan’s third victim, out caught at slip, but Ishan Kishan (38 not out) and Tilak Varma (15 not out) polished off the remaining runs.
Earlier, put into bat, Afghanistan made another poor start. Rahmanullah Gurbaz fell for a second consecutive duck, this time to Arshdeep Singh.
Skipper Ibrahim Zadran scored 37 off 33 balls to make sure Afghanistan didn’t lose too many wickets in the power play again.
But the “hosts” slid from 59-2 to 100-6 in the middle overs and lost their base as Reddy picked two wickets. Afghanistan only managed to recover thanks to a 48-run partnership off 28 balls between Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi.
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See AP’s full cricket coverage here