Afghanistan's resilience and what was up with MS Dhoni? WORLD CUP TALKING POINTS

SAM MORSHEAD AT THE HAMPSHIRE BOWL: Gulbadin Naib's team adapted quickly to a two-paced strip, finding the lengths which bothered India and using their variations to excellent effect

Scorecard

Afghanistan’s improvement

After the mauling they suffered at the hands of England on Tuesday, this was a brave performance with the ball from the Afghans.

They adapted quickly to a two-paced strip, finding the lengths which bothered India and using their variations to excellent effect.

Sure, the pitch benefited them - as it would India in the second half of the game - but they still had to make the most of the tools at their disposal.

And they did just that.

At Old Trafford, Gulbadin Naib’s team shipped 21 fours and 25 sixes over the course of 50 overs. Here, it was just 15 and one.

That solitary rope clearance came in the 46th over - by which point in the equivalent innings against England, they had already conceded 19.

During a very difficult campaign for Afghanistan, this first innings at Southampton was a major high point.

^{MS Dhoni found going difficult with the bat}

Dhoni's dreadful knock

A lot has been said and written about MS Dhoni’s declining strike rate in one-day international cricket over recent years, while batting in white-ball cricket in general has gone in the other direction.

And here at the Hampshire Bowl there was another curious example of a Dhoni innings which lacked fluency and pace.

The wicketkeeper struggled to find the middle of the bat, found himself squeezed relentlessly by the Afghan spinners, and generally looked out of sorts.

By the time he was eventually dismissed by Rashid Khan, dancing down the track and missing with a wild heave before being stumped, he had managed 28 from 52 balls in an hour and a quarter.

Dhoni showed in the IPL that he still had an ability to accelerate through the gears but in ODIs, the equation is quite different. Only three times in his past 11 visits to the crease has his strike rate topped 100, and of those 11 innings he has faced 30 deliveries or more on eight occasions.

There are, of course, instances where it has either felt necessary for Dhoni to bed in, or his teammates have been scoring at a sufficient rate for it not to matter - his 87 not out against Australia in Melbourne in January immediately comes to mind - but here India needed him to hit the accelerator, and he responded by pulling up the handbrake.

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Spin cycle

It has certainly been the weekend of the non-spinning spinner.

First of all, at Headingley, Dhananjaya de Silva wove a web around England with simple up and down deliveries at 50 clicks, drawing the host nation’s batsmen into aggressive shots on a pitch not designed for expressive strokeplay.

And then, following the Sri Lankan’s lead at day later, Mohammad Nabi used the same ploy to tuck up India.

Nabi is a master of the art. There is little variation about his repertoire, there is certainly no mystery, and he does not even rely on dip or excess air to fool his victims.

Oh no, Nabi’s effectiveness is all about his consistency, nagging lines which you’d usually associate with a Test match offspinner, trying to pin down one end while the quicks do damage at the other.

It worked a treat earlier in the competition against Sri Lanka in Cardiff, with the allrounder darting through the middle order by claiming three wickets in a single over - all thanks to the same formula: just short of a good length, get the batsman guessing whether or not to play for turn, find the edge, or sneak between bat and pad.

No wonder Nabi trusts the method. It has brought him on average more than a wicket a game during his ODI career, and an economy rate in the low fours.

Here he finished with 2-33, a major factor in Afghanistan restricting India to 224. Quite an effort, considering they had not lost a wicket to spin going into the game.

^{Virat Kohli remonstrates} 

You can't do that

When Jasprit Bumrah pinned Hashmatullah Shahidi on the pads in front of middle and leg, he and the rest of the Indian side were convinced they should have seen Aleem Dar raise his finger.

When he didn’t, the reaction of many of the fielding team was pretty petulant - but their captain was the worst offender.

Arms outstretched, he barked at Dar several times after the umpire had made his decision, his actions the very definition of excessive appealing. It will be interesting to see whether the matchday officials come down heavily on Kohli as a result.

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