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The Indian cricket has played their first match of the ICC World Twenty20 against Afghanistan at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo. India won the match by 23 runs but the Afghan team gave hard time to Indian bowlers.

Earlier, Afghanistan captain Nawroz Mangal won the toss and elected to bat first.

India lost both the openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag with just 22 runs on the board, Shapoor Zadran too both the wickets.

However, Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh played some good cricketing shorts and gave support to team India. Yuvraj made 18 runs from 20 balls with one huge six.

Suresh Raina and captian MS Dhoni made 38 runs and 18 runs, respectively.

Once again, it was Virat Kohli who saved India, he made 50 runs from 39 balls with four fours and two sixes.

India made 159 runs in their 20 overs play. Batting second, Afghanistan team made only 136 runs and lost the match by 23 runs. Yuvraj Singh took three wickets for 24 runs in 4 overs spell.

After match presentation:

Afghanistan captain Nawroz Mangal said, “It was a good game for the boys, we could have done better, shot selection was a bit poor, that was why we have lost the game. We could have done better in the field, but we are satisfied we restricted the mighty Indian batting to 160.”

Indian captain MS Dhoni, “This format balances both teams, if one of the opposition batsman or bowler have a great day, it could change the result. A good performance but not a great performance from us. There are a lot of areas we have to improve on to be honest. People talk a lot about five bowlers, but what matters is on the day how they bowl, whether they are a part-timer or a specialist.”

Man of the Match is Virat Kohli: “Always good to get a start, good to start on a winning note. Always tough to play against a team with nothing to lose. They were in a situation where they could try a lot of things, we had to be more careful.”