Scorecard:

Afghanistan: 115 for 8 (20 overs)

(Noor Ali 50 off 48 balls, Asghar 30 off 33 balls, Nehra 3 for 19, Praveen 2 for 14)

India: 116 for 3 (14.5 overs)

(Murali Vijay 48 off 46 balls, Yuvraj 23* off 22 balls, Hamid 1 for 8, Samiullah 1 for 11)

Ashish Nehra broke Afghanistan’s back right away taking 2 wickets in the first couple of overs and then came back to claim Noor Ali, their mainstay. Afghanistan didn’t put up much on display. Except for one partnership of 68 off 11 overs there was nothing to talk of. And if your best partnership just manages a run-a-ball, then you’re not playing T20. However full credit to Noor and Asghar to be able to stand up to the good Indian bowling attack.

India were not stretched so they scored leisurely without exerting themselves too much and arrived home safe with just 3 wickets down and more than 5 overs to spare. Murali Vijay made good use of the opportunity presented to him and Yuvraj shrugged off bad memories of the IPL to score some runs.