Asia Cup 2018: 3 reasons why India couldn't win against Afghanistan
In a very special match for MS Dhoni against Afghanistan, India made as much as five changes to check their bench strength.
Dhoni was the captain of the team for this match. Dhoni became the first Indian captain to lead the team in 200 ODis.
Dhoni lost the toss and Afghanistan sent India to bowl first. In the first innings, Afghanistan's batting was led by Mohammad Shahzad's century.
At one point, he was scoring most of Afghanistan's runs as the other four batsmen in the top five failed miserably.
After Shahzad got out, Mohammad Nabi took over the innings and helped his side post a total of 252 with a 56-ball 64.
Indian openers gave India the perfect start and put together 110 runs for the first wicket. India's victory seemed certain, but after the fall of Ambati Rayudu, India lost wickets at regular intervals.
Slowly, India lost the grip over the match. India was required to make seven runs off Rashid Khan's bowling in the last over of the match. Ravindra Jadeja hits a four on the second ball of that over.
With just one run needed off two deliveries, Ravindra Jadeja got caught and he could not finish the game. This leads to the iconic tie for the Afghanistan Cricket team.
Here, we are going to look at the three reasons why India could not be able to win the match against Afghanistan:-
#1 Dropped catch of Mohammad Shahzad
Mohammad Shahzad single-handedly took away the match from the Indian team by scoring 124 off just 116 deliveries. But Afghanistan would have been in great trouble if his catch was taken by Ambati Rayudu.
In the ninth over of the match, Shahzad mistimed an outside off delivery of Siddarth Kaul. He did not get enough distance from the shot and the ball was going to Ambati Rayudu, who was at mid-off.
It seemed to be a wicket for India but Rayudu dropped the easy opportunity. Shahzad was playing on just 49 at that time.
If Rayudu had taken that catch, India could have bowled out Afghanistan for a small total and that could have changed the outcome of the match.