A look back at Mohammed Shami’s memorable hat-trick vs Afghanistan in the 2019 World Cup

As India gear up to take on Afghanistan for the second time in the history of the ICC Cricket World Cup, Rohit Sharma and his men will be hoping to win their second match over their continental neighbours. The last time these two sides met in the quadrennial cricket fest, it was back in 2019. However, the affair turned out to be quite a tight one that went down to the wire. With less than 24 hours remaining for the clash between the two sides, here is what happened at Southampton when the two forces came face to face.

Winning the toss, India opted to bat first, hoping to make the maximum of a surface that had its own shares of mysteries. Rohit Sharma couldn’t cash in on his scintillating form back then as he fell for 1. KL Rahul made a decent start with a 53-ball 30 while Virat Kohli smashed 67 from 63 to set the tone.

After Rahul fell to Mohammad Nabi, it was Vijay Shankar who came together with the Indian skipper to knit together a 58-run partnership. Shankar departed for 29 while Virat got out to Nabi. Tottering at 135/4, Kedar Jadhav played an instrumental knock of 52 while he was accompanied by MS Dhoni (28) to propel India to a decent position.

However, the fall of Dhoni triggered a sudden collapse and India could only manage 224/8 from their allotment of 50 overs. Gulbadin Naib and Mohammad Naib were the pick of the Afghan bowling lot, sharing four wickets between them.

Chasing 225, Afghanistan were keen to get off to a good start but the Indian bowlers ensured that they were putting in the squeeze early on. Mohammed Shami was the first one to deal a blow to the opposition with the big wicket of Hazratullah Zazai. However, following suit, a decent partnership took shape between Naib and Rahmat Shah. The duo posted 44 runs for the second wicket before Hardik Pandya got rid of Naib for 27.

Afghanistan started getting in those small partnerships that seemed well in control of proceedings, particularly with Mohammad Nabi’s half-century. However, despite the runs coming in, the scoring rate proved to be a trouble and by the time the final over came by, Afghanistan needed 16.

The first ball bowled by Shami was drilled flat down the ground for a boundary and the equation boiled down to 12 needed from five. The second ball was fuller that was dug out till deep midwicket but Nabi refused the single. The following delivery was a picture-perfect yorker that was dug out with tremendous strength by Nabi but it would only go as far as Hardik Pandya at long-on, who pouched a dolly to turn the game back in India’s favour.

Once Nabi departed, Shami skittled out Afghanistan with a ball to spare as he claimed a hattrick, registering the scalps of Aftab Alam and Mujeeb ur Rahman on two consecutive deliveries. India scripted a 11-run win to chronicle their 50th World Cup win.