TWO wins in TWO. The Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi played witness to a blue carnival as India - led by Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli - outclassed Afghanistan by eight wickets. Just. Pure. Unadulterated. Hitman. Stuff.

Afghanistan won the toss, batted first, and posted 272/8 in 50 overs thanks to Hashmatullah Shahidi (80) and Azmatullah Omarzai (62). Jasprit Bumrah (4/39) was at the forefront of the bowling attack, with support from birthday boy Hardik Pandya (2/43) and a wicket each from Shardul Thakur (1/31) and Kuldeep Yadav (1/40).

What seemed like a challenging total was, in fact, a cakewalk for Rohit Sharma (131) and Virat Kohli (55*). Cameo appearances from Ishan Kishan (47) and Shreyas Iyer (25*) aided the Men in Blue in chasing the target with 90 balls to spare. Let’s relive this entertaining encounter.

BOOM! First wicket down

It’s that man again, Jasprit BUMRAH! Short of a length delivery, takes an outside edge off Ibrahim Zadran’s bat, wicket-keeper KL Rahul takes a simple catch and a new BOOM celebration makes its debut - the Marcus Rashford ‘mentality’ pose.

Hardik applies the handbrake

The Hashmatullah Shahidi - Azmatullah Omarzai partnership served as the backbone of Afghanistan’s batting resistance. But birthday boy Hardik Pandya had a different plan. His off-cutter delivery beat Omarzai and clipped the bails of the off-stump to end the 121-run stand for the fourth wicket.

Kuldeep and Bumrah go wicket-shopping

Coming to the death overs, the Afghani batters saw their momentum take a dip after Kuldeep Yadav plucked the wicket of skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (80). Kuldeep outsmarted Shahidi, who was going for the reverse sweep.

Bumrah’s final three overs yielded three wickets - Mohammad Nabi (19), Najibullah Zadran (2) and Rashid Khan (16). BOOM BOOM was pitch-perfect with his bowling deliveries, and that catapulted India to earn a target of 273 runs from 50 overs.

Hitman ROARS

Captain, leader, legend, RECORD-BREAKER. Rohit Sharma got his 2019 World Cup groove back in style. Let’s recap it briefly if we can.

Overs 4.2: Became the fastest Indian and joint-fastest international cricketer to 1,000 runs in ODI World Cups.

Overs 7.5: Went past Chris Gayle's record (553) for most sixes in international cricket (556).

Overs 17.2 overs: Became the fastest Indian centurion in World Cups (63 balls) and surpassed Sachin Tendulkar (6) for most hundreds in World Cups (7) and Ricky Ponting (30) for most ODI centuries (31).

The Indian skipper would see his spirited knock come to an end after Rashid Khan’s delivery crashed through his stumps.

Happy homecoming for Kohli

Taking a cue from Ishan Kishan’s run-a-ball 47, Virat Kohli stepped up at his home ground in Delhi and struck a patient 55 in 56 balls that was packed with six boundary fours. Shreyas Iyer was happy to play a sidekick with 25 runs off 23 balls as India completed their innings at 273/2 in 35 overs.

Brief scores: India 273/2 (Rohit Sharma 131, Virat Kohli 55*; Rashid Khan 2/57) BEAT Afghanistan 272/8 (Hashmatullah Shahidi 80, Azmatullah Omarzai 62; Jasprit Bumrah 4/39) by eight wickets.