India defeat Afghanistan by 101 runs

Riding on a superb batting effort by Virat Kohli and some clinical bowling by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, India outplay Afghanistan by 101 runs in the Super 4 encounter at Asia Cup in Dubai on Thursday, Hindustan times reported.

Kohli ended his century drought and powered India to 212/2. In response, Afghanistan got off to a dreadful start with Bhuvneshwar dismantling the Afghan batters.

Bhuvneshwar scalped five wickets in his four overs.

Arshdeep Singh, R Ashwin and Deepak Hooda picked one wicket each.

Earlier in the evening Kohli took just 53 deliveries to reach the triple digit mark. He reached his century in style as he smashed Fareed Ahmad for a six in the 19th over, read the report.

The talismanic batter opened the innings with KL Rahul and returned unbeaten on 122 off 61 balls, which included twelve 4s and six 6s.

The opening pair provided India with an explosive start after being invited to bat first. The duo added 119 runs for the opening wicket, before Fareed removed Rahul on 62(41). He then packed Suryakumar Yadav in the same over.

Kohli along with Rishabh Pant then drove the Indian innings. Hindustan times reported.

Rahul led the unit as India made three changes in their line-up. Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and Yuzvendra Chahal were rested and Deepak Chahar, Dinesh Karthik, and Axar Patel came in as replacement for the trio.