2 mistakes and 1 masterstroke by India in their 2023 World Cup match against Afghanistan

Team India made it two wins out of two in the league stage of the ongoing 2023 ODI World Cup with a comfortable victory over Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Wednesday. The Men in Blue chased down the 273-run target with 15 overs to spare to add two more valuable points to their bag as well as spruce up their net run rate.

Rohit Sharma lost the toss for the second time in succession, leading to Team India bowling first again. Jasprit Bumrah was the pick of the Indian bowlers as he returned with figures of 4-39 on a flat surface.

During the run chase, Rohit scored a sublime hundred and was adjudged Player of the Match for his 131-run knock off 84 deliveries. He was well supported by fine knocks from Ishan Kishan (47) and Virat Kohli (55*) as well.

On that note, let us look at two mistakes and one masterstroke by India in their 2023 World Cup match against Afghanistan.

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#3 Mistake - Allowing Afghanistan to cruise through in the middle overs with the bat

The Men in Blue began well with the ball, considering the nature of the surface. They restricted Afghanistan to just 48 runs in the powerplay and their top order was back in the hut in 13 overs.

However, it took Team India more than 20 overs to claim their next wicket. The pair of Azmatullah Omarzai and skipper Hasmathullah Shahidi put on Afghanistan's second-highest partnership for any wicket in ODI World Cups.

They took their time to settle in and switched gears while dealing with the spell of Indian spinners from both ends. The game drifted a little away from the hosts during this phase, and Afghanistan were primed to score over 300 on the back of the fifties by the pair.

While everything ended quite well, India were still made to work hard in the middle overs, and the key to success in ODIs with the ball is claiming wickets at regular intervals, which they were unable to do on this occasion.

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#2 Masterstroke - Taking advantage of Rashid Khan's late introduction into the attack

Team India made the most of a flat surface in Delhi after coming up against a testing pitch in Chennai for their opener. The Men in Blue faced no hiccups during the run chase, and based on the start that they got in the second innings, it was surprising that Afghanistan's ace bowler Rashid Khan was only introduced into the attack in the 15th over.

The ploy to hold back the leg spinner did not work out as India cashed in on the other bowlers and raced to 125 runs in the time frame. Rashid ended up being the pick of the Afghanistan bowlers with figures of 2-57 off his seven overs.

While his early introduction may not have necessarily turned the game around entirely for Afghanistan, his presence at an earlier stage might have at least delayed the inevitable.

The Indian batters were rightly tentative against Rashid to begin with, scoring only 14 runs off his first three overs, but luckily for the hosts, the damage was already done.

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#1 Mistake - Exposing out-of-sorts Siraj to well set batters

Mohammed Siraj bowled the most expensive spell of his ODI career after conceding 76 runs off his nine overs and going wicketless. The right-arm pacer lacked rhythm and was far from his best.

While he did get the new ball to move around a bit, he lost his impact soon after. Siraj conceded 28 runs in his first spell of four overs. However, considering that he was not bowling at his best, skipper Rohit Sharma opted to bring him arguably at the wrong time.

With the partnership for the fourth wicket flourishing, Siraj was brought back in the 30th over. He conceded a boundary off the very first ball of his second spell and ended up conceding 18 runs off two overs before being taken off the attack.

Unfortunately, his third spell in the death overs was also a disappointing one. He conceded 30 runs off three overs and did not even bowl his full quota of overs.

How long will the Men in Blue's winning streak continue in the 2023 ODI World Cup? Let us know what you think.