India beat Afghanistan by 7 wickets in 2nd T20I to seal series

India beat Afghanistan by 7 wickets in the second T20 International of the series, played at the Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium in Delhi, to seal the series. Indian captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and chose to bowl first. Batting first, Afghanistan scored 159 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in 20 overs, setting India a target of 160 runs.

India reached the target in just 14.5 overs, losing 3 wickets. Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson both scored heavily in the powerplay, adding 82 runs. India lost their first wicket at 88 runs, when Abhishek Sharma was out for 39 off 19 balls, caught by Atal Rau off the bowling of Rashid Khan. In the same over, Rashid also had Samson caught by Mohammad Nabi.

Sanju Samson was out after scoring a half-century, his first fifty since the T20 World Cup. Samson scored 57 runs off 22 balls with seven fours and four sixes. In one over he hit 6, 4, 4, 6 to silence the Afghanistan bowlers. Samson's strike rate in the match was over 200. After Samson and Abhishek's good batting, Ishan Kishan also chipped in with 38 runs to take the innings forward.

After 7 overs, India were 99 for 2. Rashid Khan, as usual, showed his bowling prowess to give Afghanistan all three big wickets. In a single over he had both Abhishek and Samson caught, and also took the wicket of Shreyas Iyer. Though he gave away plenty of runs, Rashid Khan proved to be Afghanistan's key threat.

In Afghanistan's innings, Ibrahim Zadran was the top scorer with 37 runs, while Radheshkhan remained unbeaten on 28. Darwish Rasooli contributed 26 runs. For India, Nitish Kumar Reddy took three wickets. He bowled three overs and took a wicket on the first ball of each over. Arshdeep Singh gave India their first breakthrough, with Rahmanullah Gurbaz failing to open his account for the second consecutive match.

Afghanistan's batters then tried to play well. Ibrahim Zadran hit Jasprit Bumrah for two successive boundaries to signal his intent, but the Afghanistan side could not do much against Nitish Reddy. Nitish Kumar Reddy, who had been hit hard in the first T20 match, began this match by taking a wicket on the very first ball. After that, Afghanistan kept losing wickets at intervals and were bowled out for just 159 runs.

Vaibhav Suryavanshi again did not find a place in the team for this match, while Ravi Bishnoi was given a place in the playing eleven in place of Varun Chakravarthy, who is out of the series due to injury. The third and final match of the series will be played on 17 September, also at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.