Live report - India vs Afghanistan, World Cup 2023

Both of India's wins so far were set up by the bowlers. Jasprit Bumrah picked up four wickets today. One with the new ball and three at the death. Kuldeep Yadav stepped up to offer his captain another option in the back end. He gave away only five runs between 39th, 41st and the 43rd overs.

This is all on the same ground where over 700 runs were scored just four days ago.

Of late, Rohit Sharma (131 off 84) looks like a batter exploring the very limits of his ability and finding that there may be none.

Previously he used to set himself up to bat 50 overs and part of the reason for that is because India didn't know if they could trust their middle order. Now they had depth there. Now they have match-winners there and that's freed Rohit up.

He's taking a lot of risks in the first 10 overs and a lot of them are paying off because he's being clever about them. He's picking his strong areas - down the ground and over midwicket and square leg - for his boundaries and there were plenty today.

Afghanistan's batters did well to put up 272, with their captain Hashmatullah Shahidi and allrounder Azmatullah Omarzai scoring half-centuries. They were 184 for 3 in the 35th over but fell away a bit after that, to 235 for 7 in the 45th. Those are the kinds of mistakes that more experienced teams won't make. In any case, more runs wouldn't have helped them. Batting got better under lights in Delhi and India wrapped the game up with 90 balls to spare. Local boy Virat Kohli helped himself to his 68th ODI half-century.

India's run-rates: 9.4 in overs 1-10, 7.0 in overs 11-20, 7.3 in overs 21-30

131 off 84 balls. 16 fours and five sixes.

Rohit Sharma is done for the night. Rashid Khan bowls him.

For once he's played a low percentage shot. It's difficult to sweep Rashid. One, he always targets the stumps. Two, his legbreaks almost gather pace off the pitch, just skidding through.

India need 66 off 24 overs. They're very comfortable thanks to their captain's work. The Kotla stands up to salute Rohit as he walks off. Kohli makes a point to follow Rohit and pat him on the back before he leaves.

Kohli got up close and personal with someone else as well. Naveen-ul-Haq. Except it was all very friendly. All smiles and shaking hands. That IPL feud looks to be in the past.

Andrew Fidel Fernando being silly for 10 minutes is 10 of the best minutes in life. Enjoy.

Meanwhile, Rohit vs Rashid...

Ian Smith makes a fine point on the broadcast. Typically its Rashid who comes in and gives Afghanistan control. Its very very rare that he's the one getting taken apart, prompting mid-pitch meetings between captain and bowler.

He is captain of the home team at this World Cup.

That home team carries the weight of expectations like no other.

He walked into his first press conference and made no bones about it. "This is the biggest tournament of my entire career," he said.

You'd think all that would come with some pressure.

Or that his getting out for a duck in the last match would've done something.

Rohit has rocked up here and scored a seventh World Cup century, the most by anyone going past Sachin Tendulkar.

This graphic illustrates how Rohit's playing the game entirely on his terms. Sure he's looking for a lot more boundaries, he's taking a lot more risks, but when he looks to go, he only looks to hit his strong areas. Down the ground or over midwicket and square leg. That's the very definition of a calculated risk.

Matt Roller from the ground: There is so much to like about Rashid Khan but his reluctance to bowl in the Powerplay is becoming a real problem for Afghanistan. Heading into this match, only 2 of his 81 overs in ODIs this year had come in the Powerplay, and this match is effectively over as a contest as he finally comes on in the 15th over tonight - with India's required run rate down to 4.11 per over from an initial 5.46. He has a good head-to-head record against Rohit Sharma too, at least in T20 cricket where he has dismissed him four times in 34 balls.

He's got there in only 30 balls.

He's got there with a boundary.

He has 11 of them already.

This is a batter exploring the very limits of his ability and finding that there may be none.

After 10 overs, India are 94 for 0.
Rohit 76 (43) 9x4 and 4x6
Kishan 11 (17) 2x4

There are a couple of shots that Rohit's played in this powerplay that signals he's an entirely changed batter from the daddy hundred devourer he used to be.

In the fourth over, Mujeeb pitched one only slightly short. Balls like that would be tapped on top of the boundary to long-on by other batters. Rohit, though, leapt back in his crease and pulled it through midwicket. The connection wasn't perfect. But he got four.

In the next over, even though he'd only just taken a risk, Rohit walked at Fazalhaq Farroqi - he's a left-arm quick and they're troubled him in ODIs - and lifted him over extra cover.

At the end of five overs, Rohit had already hit four fours and a six. He had 31 to his name. His partner only had 5.

Rohit doesn't pick up like a freight train anymore. He's a Ferrari.

It's all the more remarkable considering in 2019, his strike rate in this period was only 67.74. That was the time when India weren't sure of their middle-order's ability to win matches. So Rohit and Kohli and Dhawan all had to play well within themselves.

Then England went and changed the game and Rohit decided to catch them up. By 2020, his strike rate in the first 10 overs was up to 91.66. In 2022, for the first time in his career, he went through a whole year's worth of ODIs and maintained a strike rate of better than a run a ball in the first powerplay (100.68).

In 2023, he's gone and taken it even further up. And even though he's scoring so rapidly, his average in this period is 71.33. That tells you the risks he's taking are calculated. They're not leading to early dismissals.

Here's the top five, courtesy Sampath Bandarupalli

Fastest to 1000 runs in men's ODI World Cup: (in innings)

19 - Rohit Sharma and David Warner
20 - Sachin Tendulkar
20 - AB de Villiers
21 - Viv Richards and Sourav Ganguly

Ishan Kishan opened his account only off the ninth ball he faced in the fourth over of the chase. And it was a beauty too. Driving on the up through cover against Mujeeb's mystery spin.

That's a solid total up on the board. Running that down will require India to be close to their best; they'll need their top order to fire and they'll need that batting depth they've gone in with Thakur at No. 8. Rohit mentioned at the toss though that they saw dew coming in during the evenings when they were training in Delhi so that should help their cause.

Shahidi and Omarzai got together at 63 for 3 and laid the platform for this total. A run-rate that was 3.8 in the first 10, 3.5 in the next 10, balloooned to 6.4 between overs 31 and 40. That's when Afghanistan bossed the game against spin, like they said they would. Omarzai especially was very impressive. His highest List A score was 74 and he almost got there against one of the most complete bowling attacks in international cricket. He's made a biiiiiiig step up.

India fought back in the death, mainly through Kuldeep - his three overs between the 39th and the 43rd yielded only five runs and the wicket of Shahidi - and Bumrah - who finishes with 4 for 39 from his set. Siraj though had a really tough time, giving up one-fourth (76) of the total runs Afghanistan scored today. Lets not be too harsh though. It was only last month that he picked up four wickets in an over in the Asia Cup final.

Naveen-ul-Haq is in and the crowd chant's Kohli's name.

Here's Matt Roller: Just wandered out into the stands to watch a couple of overs - Virat-mania in his hometown is no different to what I experienced in his adopted city, Bangalore, earlier this year. His replica shirts outstrip any other player by around three to one, and the front ten rows of fans in the middle tier all stood up to get a better view of him - or a photo - as he jogged around from in front of the Bishan Singh Bedi Stand, past the Pavilion bearing his name, and in front of the Old Club House at long-on.

There have been several chants of his name since Naveen-ul-Haq walked out to bat, after their feud in IPL 2023, and it feels as though all the ingredients are there for a match-winning innings during the run chase - potentially with Kohli taking down his nemesis, Kesrick Williams style.

India are looking at an over-rate penality - they'll be bowling the last over of this innings with one less fielder on the boundary - four instead of five.

With Rashid Khan in - he's a 360 degree hitter - that could've been very costly. But Jasprit Bumrah has just taken him out. Offcutter dug into the pitch pops out towards deep point. Kuldeep Yadav is there, he runs in. Ravindra Jadeja is running back from inside the circle. Australia missed a catch with two people going for it - they gave Kohli a life - here there are no mishaps. Jadeja pulls out just in the nick of time and Kuldeep is able to gather the ball on the rebound. Jadeja falls on top of Kuldeep in delight. Rohit comes over and taps his hair. This team likes him. This team likes him a lot.

Fourth wicket for Bumrah and in the death, he's cranked his pace up to the mid 140kph.

From 184 for 3 in the 35th over, Afghanistan are 235 for 7 in the 45th. Jasprit Bumrah has struck twice in the over. Mohammad Nabi and Najibullah Zadran are gone for a combined 21 off 35 balls. The two power-hitters just weren't able to get going. The ball not coming onto the bat off a dry pitch, India changing their pace nicely, Kuldeep being unhittable, all contributed to that little malfunction.

Kuldeep - 87, sometimes 90 kph - is bowling only five or so kph short of Jadeja's pace.

At the end of India's first game of the World Cup, where he picked up two wickets, he complained that everybody was asking him to bowl quicker, but nobody was telling him how to do that.

Presumably, he was talking about how to bowl quicker without losing his strengths; without losing his ability to flight the ball and land it where he wants instead of ending up short or offering up full tosses.

Cricket is the kind of game where making even slight changes can result in things going clean off kilter. Adding pace for a spinner is not a slight change. But the way Kuldeep is bowling, it's almost tempting to think it is. He's still got his accuracy, which explains why he's been able to bowl the 39th, the 41st and the 43rd overs and give up just five runs. Not a single one of those 18 balls - 13 of which were dots - allowed the batter an easy put away, which is why Shahidi went reverse sweeping and ended up lbw.

The thing with Kuldeep 1.0 was batters weren't picking him out of the hand, but that didn't matter. He was so slow that they could hang back in the crease and read the turn off the pitch. That slowness also allowed them to play horizontal bat shots - the power shots - to good length balls and hit them for boundaries.

Kuldeep 2.0 is quicker both through the air and off the pitch. So now you can't play those back foot power-shots to his good length balls. They're on you before you know it. And, remember, its hard to pick which way they turn. He started his 43rd over with a seam up delivery at 112kph!

FIRST SPELL

A few of the boundaries here were the result of his looking for swing. Pitching it right up and occasionally losing his radar, the width on offer being punished.

SECOND SPELL

Hardik and Thakur are having to compensate for one of India's frontline bowlers having a bit of a bad day today. 6-0-47-0, giving away nine fours

THIRD SPELL

These are the death overs (41-50). You expect to go for runs.

FOURTH SPELL

He doesn't finish his full quota: 9-0-76-0. HIs most expensive figures in ODIs.

Omarzai - he's gone now but he went from 28 off 40 to 62 off 69. Shahidi went from 26 off 40 to 62 off 62. Smooth, steady uptick in run-rate.

Just as India were scrambling, Hardik Pandya has given them solid ground to stand on.

He was hit for a four first ball of the 35th over. That was at top speed. Apparently 144 kph.

So he immediately takes pace off. The offcutter bites in the pitch, cuts in towards the stumps and takes out top of off. Omarzai was trying to glide it to third, but he played inside the line.

Second wicket for the seam-bowling allrounder. Shows just how crucial he is to the balance of this Indian team. Afghanistan were starting to run away with the game and he's come in checked them.

Azmatullah Omarzai has a highest List A score of 74. He's on course to better that in a World Cup match. That's mighty impressive. Cruised to his second ODI fifty, the highlight of which was the twin sixes he hit off Kuldeep Yadav. He's not been perturbed by Bumrah's pace either. This is a bowling attack operating at a very high level and he has acquitted to it beautifully.

At the other end, the captain Shahidi has brought up his own fifty and in the process sounded a warning. Afghanistan are ready to pull the trigger now.

Afghanistan have recorded only one hundred-run partnership for any wicket in men's ODI World Cups. Shahidi and Omarzai are on course to join Rahmat Shah and Ikram Alikhil from 2019

They've middled 89 of the 102 balls they've faced. They've added three fours and three sixes to the score. They're ticking along at almost five an over.

Afghanistan are extremely confident in their bowling attack. They're be happy with a par total here. They're back themselves to defend it

The score is 147 for 3 in 30 overs. The old adage is to double that by 50 overs.

Forty-five runs in 10 overs of spin isn't anything to be fussed about.

But 12 of those came off the last over from Kuldeep so Rohit has decided to take him off the attack and bring back Bumrah to try and break this partnership.

He knows with Najibullah, Nabi and Rashid still in the shed, Afghanistan can score big in the last bit of this game. But if India strike now and pull one of those guys in earlier than they'd like, the game changes.

Bumrah's second spell (2-0-7-0) is full of yorkers and bouncers. This is just the 29th over. He's in with a very clear brief to break this partnership.

Siraj from the other end now. No more spin. Afghanistan have lived up to their own billing. They've played India's spinners out without any fuss.

Shahidi and Omarzai bring up their fifty partnership in style

Afghanistan 118 for 3 in 26 overs. Shahidi 26 off 40. Omarzai 28 off 40.

At the start of the 22nd over, Shahidi launches into a slog sweep. The ball is way outside off. He's hitting against the turn. The shot is fraught with risk and it ends up as a top edge for four to deep third.

Ravindra Jadeja might have seen this as a moral victory... untilllll the umpire signals no-ball. And just before the umpire signalled no-ball, Shahidi was seen talking to him, gesturing the number four with his hand.

That's because he had clocked that there weren't enough fielders inside the 30-yard circle. There needs to be five in overs 11-40. India had one less. That's grounds for a no-ball and you can't get out caught or bowled or lbw off a no-ball. That four was a zero risk shot. It was Shahidi being at the top of his game. Ended a stretch of play where Afghanistan hadn't got a boundary in 54 balls

Hashmatullah Shahidi, in the pre-match, said "we play better spin in the nets" when asked about the challenge of facing India's spinners. He was trying to be engaging - people like people who are good at giving one-liners - in a language that isn't his first so there might have been some nuance lost. In any case, his claim is not far off. Rashid Khan really does have a legitimate claim to being the best white-ball spinner on the planet.

Shahidi is out there right now and he'll have to walk the talk with India introducing spin from both ends. Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja are in for the 17th and the 18th overs.

Matt Roller from the Kotla: Interesting to see Omarzai promoted to No. 5 - their coach Trott was bemoaning Afghanistan's middle order and their failure to build partnerships as they collapsed in Dharamshala, and this move artificially lengthens their batting lineup, with Mohammad Nabi now due in at No. 7. It also means they've avoided pairing left-handers, with Najibullah Zadran shifting down a spot.

Random nugget: we have a drone in operation here rather than the usual spidercam. Apparently the layout of the Kotla doesn't lend itself to spidercam

India's seam-bowling allrounders tend to be like the free-wheeling No. 10 in football.

They're not there to hold onto discipline. They're there to disrupt. They're there to try a lot of things. Slower balls. Short balls. Knuckle balls.

In the process of all that, they've delivered India two wickets in four balls.

Earlier on in the World Cup, Ian Bishop asked Thakur to explain the wobble seam ball to him, and Thakur just said, "I hold it like this [two fingers held along the seam] and then I let it go and something hapens. I don't even know what happens." It's self-deprecation surely. He went on to add, "if I don't know what happens, how will the batter know?"

It may be something it may be nothing but I've noticed a few of the purest hitters of the cricket ball get into a bit of a crouch just as the bowler is about to let go of the ball.

AB de Villiers does it. Jos Buttler does it. And Rahmanullah Gurbaz does it. Feels like a trick to get underneath and lift the ball out of the ground. That's especially true of the first two batters on that list, considering how they are masters of the ramp and the scoop, shots that often require you to go ground level.

The downside of this method is the surprise short ball. Because you're set up to be low, your bat is almost always coming from low to high and that means when you get a bouncer, and you don't clock it early, you're at risk of mis-hitting it and it goes high instead of long.

That's what happens when Hardik surprises Gurbaz in the 13th over and Thakur catches him out on the deep square leg boundary. Afghanistan 63 for 2 in 13 overs.

Matt Roller has arrived at the ground: Eight hours after my taxi left my hotel in Dharamshala, I’m in situ at the press box at the Kotla, which looks far more striking in person than I had anticipated. It’s been a busy day: taxi to Kangra Airport, fly to Delhi, taxi to my hotel, and rush to the ground in time for the start of the fifth over – but for a slight delay in my room being made ready, I reckon I’d have made it for the start.

The traffic outside the stadium is gridlocked and there are still thousands of fans milling around, looking for their gates, buying merchandise, having their faces painted or trying to bag a last-minute ticket. That might explain why there are still some empty seats, particularly in the upper tiers of the Bishan Singh Bedi and Mohinder Amarnath Stands – which are also the areas most exposed to the afternoon sunshine.

Having been cautious at the start, Gurbaz and Zadran have got going now.

There is still movement on offer but it is largely off the pitch; largely thanks to how hard Bumrah is hitting it with the upright seam and Siraj's skill with the wobble seam variation

But when the two quicks go a little full, when they venture further than 6m on the pitch, Afghanistan have been happy to press forward and hit through the line.

So, seeing a few drives flying away, Bumrah gets closer to off stump and sits on that length just short of good. It requires the batter to come forward to meet it, but he can't really hit this length through the line.

Now this is where Bumrah's strength helps. It's where the whip of his wrist on delivery helps. He keeps hitting the deck so hard that one ball, with the seam angled towards third man, just holds its line enough against the angle into the right-hander to take Zadran's edge through to the keeper.

You really have to bend your back to get that kind of movement from Indian pitches. The fact that Bumrah is getting it suggests his back is probably well healed.

Speeds in kph: 130, 136, 130, 139, 135, 135, 137

There was a time not so long ago that Jasprit Bumrah wasn't getting the most out of the new ball. His not getting wickets in the first few overs had led to India having pretty poor numbers in the first powerplay.

That's no longer the case because Bumrah has found ways to get consistent swing. Particularly away swing.

For a guy whose bowling action is turned to angling the ball into right-handers, that is a crucial form of variation. For a while, he didn't have that. He just used to rely on the skid he gets off the pitch and a bit of seam movement. Now he's moving the ball in the air again.

This was all on show in that first over. The first and the last balls went away from the right-handed Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Almost everything else tailed in. He got swing and seam movement.

It's unlikely to last. White balls stop yapping like that around the fifth over. But in that time, especially with Mohammed Siraj from the other end, there is every chance of an early wicket.

Hashmatullah Shahidi says if Afghanistan bat well and put up a good score, he is confident in his bowling attack to defend the total. No changes, same team, he adds and highlights how they've enjoyed travelling around India. A member of the ESPNcricinfo Hindi team, Daya Sagar, can attest to that. Check out this lovely story about the players visiting an area in Delhi called Bhogal aka 'Mini Afghanistan'

Rohit Sharma says India were looking to bat second because they trained in Delhi last evening and saw a fair bit of dew around. One change: Ashwin misses out, Thakur comes in. It is also telling that when Rohit was talking about that victory over Australia, he labelled both Kohli and Rahul as "senior batters". Kohli will be playing his 283rd match today. Rahul just his 63rd. It shows how Rahul has grown in the team's eyes thanks to the success he's had adapting from an opening batter to a middle-order batter.

Afghanistan: 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Ibrahim Zadran, 3 Rahmat Shah, 4 Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), 5 Mohammad Nabi, 6 Najibullah Zadran, 7 Azmatullah Omarzai, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Naveen-ul-Haq, 10 Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi

India: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 KL Rahul (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Mohammed Siraj

India are purring. In some ways, the start they had to this World Cup, recovering from 2 for 3 against serial title-winners Australia, will have instilled the one thing they have been without at recent World Cups. Belief in their middle order.

KL Rahul averages over 50 at No. 5 and his return to fitness just ahead of the World Cup was a major box ticked. Today, they'll have the chance to go even better if Shreyas Iyer can get in among the runs. Both players have similar skillsets, the ability to put pressure back on the spinners and therefore win the battle of the middle overs. Given that's where two of Afghanistan's best bowlers - Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi - operate, it will be a crucial advantage.

Live ball-by-ball commentary for the match is also available in Hindi and in Tamil.