Skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi and Azmatullah Omarzai hit half-centuries as Afghanistan reached 272-8 against hosts India in their World Cup clash on Wednesday. Afghanistan elected to bat first at New Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium which witnessed a World Cup record 754 runs scored in the previous match when South Africa posted 428 and defeated Sri Lanka.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The ground was a sea blue with nearly all of the 40,000 seats taken, many in anticipation of a big contribution by superstar cricketer and Delhi-born Virat Kohli.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
But at the end of the Afghanistan innings it was pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah who stood out for the home side with his best World Cup bowling figures of 4-39.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Afghanistan slipped to 63-3 before Shahidi (80) and Omarzai (62) put on 121 runs to help Afghanistan recover.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Bumrah got Ibrahim Zadran caught behind for 22 and celebrated by pointing to his temple.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Rahmanullah Gurbaz, on 21, and Rahmat Shah, on 16, fell in the space of four balls with Hardik Pandya and Shardul Thakur taking the wickets.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Shahidi, a left-hand batsman, and Omarzai then rebuilt the innings in a century stand, prompting skipper Rohit Sharma to rotate his bowlers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Omarzai reached his second ODI fifty and soon Shahidi smashed Pandya for four to bring up his half-century and followed it up with a six.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Omarzai, who hit two fours and four sixes in his 69-ball knock, also attacked but was bowled by Pandya.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Shahidi kept up the attack with regular boundaries but fell lbw to Kuldeep Yadav in his attempt to reverse sweep the left-arm wrist spinner.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Bumrah struck twice including Rashid Khan to dent Afghanistan further on a batting-friendly pitch.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The Afghans lost their opening match to Bangladesh while tournament favourites India began with a victory over five-time winners Australia.<\/p>\r\n\r\n