India beats Afghanistan by six wickets in T20I match

India beat Afghanistan by six wickets on Thursday night in the first of three T20I matches in chilly Mohali.

Afghanistan’s captain Ibrahim Zadran said after the match that the team will look to improve their fielding in the next match.

“We were short 30-40 runs. We lost the toss too. But the boys fought well.

“We were trying to have a good powerplay start but we lost wickets then. One of us should’ve gone for 14-15 overs but we lost back to back wickets,” he said.

“When new batters came, we came under pressure. (Fielding effort) In the second innings there was dew and gripping of the ball was difficult. I can say that the boys tried really well.

“We will try to improve our fielding. We were quite lazy with the fielding today. We will try to improve batting as well. Bowling we have no issue. Will focus on what we did wrong today,” he said.

India’s Shivam Dube, who was named player of the match, enjoyed a particularly good game with figures of 1 for 9 in two overs with a punchy, unbeaten half-century that headlined India’s successful chase of 159.

Speaking after the match, Dube said: “It was really cold but I enjoyed playing on this ground. Playing after a long time….batting at No. 4 was a bit of pressure for me but I had one thing on my mind… that I had to play my style of cricket.

“From my style, I feel a bit of pressure first 2-3 balls but after that I think about the ball and don’t think too much. I know I can hit big sixes in T20s, so I know I can get runs anyway.”