India vs Afghanistan, World Cup 2023 Match 9: Awards List, Man of The Match, Key Stats, Presentation Ceremony

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India vs Afghanistan, World Cup 2023 Match 9: India continued their winning run with an eight-wicket victory over Afghanistan in the World Cup at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Wednesday (October 11).

Chasing 273 to win, Rohit Sharma went on a six-hitting spree, smashing an 84-ball 131 to record the most number of centuries in World Cup history, while Ishan Kishan (47), Virat Kohli (55 not out) and Shreyas Iyer (25 not out) chipped in with use contributions as the hosts romped home in 35 overs.

Rohit and Ishan shared a 156-run partnership for the opening wicket to set the platform for the chase. Earlier, Afghanistan posted 272 for 8 after opting to bat.

Skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (80) and Azmatullah Omarzai (62) struck fine fifties but Afghanistan had a slump between 35th to 45th over as they eventually just managed a decent score. For India, Jasprit Bumrah (4/39) was the pick of the bowlers while Hardik Pandya (2/43), Kuldeep Yadav (1/40) and Shardul Thakur (1/31) also contributed well.

Brief Score: Afghanistan: 272 for 8 in 50 overs (Hashmatullah Shahidi 80, Azmatullah Omarzai 62; Jasprit Bumrah 4/39). India: 273 for 2 in 35 overs (Rohit Sharma 131, Virat Kohli 55 not out, Ishan Kishan 47; Rashid Khan 2/57).

India vs Afghanistan World Cup 2023: Full List of Awards
Man of the Match: Rohit Sharma (IND) for scoring match-winning 131.

India vs Afghanistan World Cup 2023: Who Said What?

Rohit Sharma | India captain: "Was a good win for us, very important to get that momentum at the start of the tournament. It is about absorbing pressure and taking the right decision on the field. There will be a spell from the opposition where you will have to absorb pressure.

Leading up to the tournament we had played such games. You have got players with different skill sets in our team. They bring different attributes of the game to the team and it puts you in good positions as a team when you have that. We have got guys who can play fearless cricket with bat and guys who can absorb like the last game.

"(Asked about playing Pakistan and the talk around it) For us it's crucial that we don't worry about external factors and just look at things we can control. We just need to show up and do well.

"Things like what the pitch is like, what combo we can play is what we can control. What happens outside we won't be worried about it. It's just about focusing on what we can do as players and how we can perform."

Hashmatullah Shahidi | Afghanistan captain: "We had in mind that India's batting lineup is long, 300 was on our mind but unfortunately we lost too many wickets. The surface was good. We wanted to score more runs and put pressure on the opposition.

"Back-to-back wickets was the reason we didn't score more runs. After losing 3 wickets I was talking to Azmatullah - Don't worry about dots, we will convert later. Our aim was to build a partnership. We have seven more games, looking forward to those games. Hopefully we learn from our mistakes and we will work on it."