Mirpur, March 05 (PTI): India roda a solid opening partnership of 121 between Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane to comfortably beat Afghanistan in their last match in the Asia Cup in Mirpur on Wednesday.
Spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Aswhin shared seven wickets between them to help India skittle out Afghanistan for 159.
Sent into bat, only three Afghan batsmen managed double digit scores as India, who surprisingly fielded an unchanged squad for dead rubber, rode on the exploits of Jadeja (4/30) and Ashwin (3/31) to bowl out their less-formidable opponents in 45.2 overs at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. Scorecard
After pacer Mohammed Shami gave India the first breakthrough in the form of Nawroj Mangal, it was a one-way traffic as Jadeja ripped apart the inexperienced Afghan batting line-up with his left-arm spinners in offie Ashwin's company.
Afghanistan's innings was centred around No 8 batsman Samiullah Shenwari, who scored a sensible 50 off 73 balls with the help of six boundaries and one six.
Shenwari's rearguard knock helped Afghanistan cross the 150-run mark, especially they were reduced to 95 for seven at one stage.
Shenwari shared 26 runs with No 10 batsman Shapoor Zadran and 22 for the last wicket with Dawlat Zadran to bring up his fifth ODI half-century and second in the tournament.
Apart from Shenwari only two others - Noor Ali Zadran (31) and Mohammad Shahzad (22) - could reach double figures in front of India's hostile spin attack.