[Watch] Hardik Pandya roars in delight as birthday boy cleans up Azmatullah Omarzai during IND vs AFG 2023 World Cup match

Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya is enjoying a good 30th birthday so far as he picked his second wicket of the day in the form of Afghanistan's Azmatullah Omarzai in his side's 2023 World Cup clash in Delhi on Wednesday, October 11.

Omarzai scored 62 off 69 balls and was looking good for a massive score. However, he was completely foxed with a well-disguised off-cutter from Hardik and was knocked over while trying to run the ball down to third man.

Hardik Pandya was ecstatic and rightly so given how crucial the wicket was for the Men in Blue at that juncture of the game.

Here's the video of the wicket and the celebration:

View this post on Instagram

Instagram Post

Hardik Pandya broke a partnership that looked threatening for India

Azmatullah Omarzai and captain Hashmatullah Shahidi got together at the crease for Afghanistan when they were in a spot of bother at 63/3. While they found it a bit difficult to rotate the strike initially, Omarzai broke the shackles by scoring boundaries and sixes at regular intervals.

Captain Rohit Sharma rotated his spinners and brought back his quick bowlers for a short burst, but the duo seemed to have an answer to everything that was thrown at them. This made Hardik Pandya's strike to dismiss Omarzai so crucial for the hosts.

Shahidi is still at the crease and is trying to build another big partnership, this time with veteran Mohammad Nabi. It will be interesting to see how the duo go about their partnership as India will have their tails up, having broken that massive partnership of 121 runs.

Afghanistan still have a lot of firepower to come in the form of Najibullah Zadran and also Rashid Khan. They will want the two experienced batters in the middle to bat deep and then wreak havoc in the last few overs to try to get past the 300-run-mark.