India made light work of their Asia Cup fixture against Afghanistan on Wednesday, winning by eight wickets and with tons of time to spare as they only needed 160 runs for victory.
Afghanistan, so impressive for much of the tournament, were below part and were all out for 159, and then Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan put on a ponderous century stand to all but lead the team to victory.
India won the toss and chose to field, looking to chase an easy target, and aside from Noor Ali Zadran’s 31 at the top of the order and Samiullah Shenwari’s 50 at the end, the minnows suffered dearly.
Spinners Ravi Ashwin and Ravi Jadeja took the bulk of the wickets, with Jadeja removing four of the top order and Ashwin wrapping up the tail. Shenwari was the final wicket to fall, with 50 on the dot.
Dhawan and Rahane made no concerted effort to score the runs at a quick pace, and did it essentially in singles for the first 20 overs. Their stand of 121 took nearly 24 overs, and picked up pace near the end.
The final runs were scored by Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik scored the final 37 runs required with nearly 20 overs to spare.
