Comeback man Yuvraj Singh provided three crucialbreakthroughs but India were far from convincing as they launched their ICCWorld Twenty20 campaign with a scrappy 23-run victory over minnows Afghanistanin here on Wednesday.
Put into bat, it was man of the match Virat Kohli'shalf-century and n useful contribution of 38 from Suresh Raina which helpedIndia reach a decent target of 159 for five in 20 overs.
In reply, Afghanistan batsmen showed patches of brilliancein their strokemaking but their sheer inexperience saw them get all out for 136in 19.3 overs.
The bravehearts from Afghanistan can hold their heads highas they only went down after putting up a stiff resistance against a scratchyIndian team.
After getting a wicket with his very first delivery, Yuvrajin his second spell provided back-to-back breakthroughs dismissing dangerouslooking Karim Sadiq (26) and Asghar Stanikzai as Afghans, from a comfortable 75for two, were suddenly left tottering at 75 for four and never really were inthe match after that.
Yuvraj's final figures read three for 24 partly due to thecouple of sixes he was hit in his final over.
It was Yuvraj and Ravichandran Ashwin with figures of twofor 20 who applied pressure under which the opposition batsmen finally gave in.
Laxmipathy Balaji finished it in the end with figures ofthree for 19 but he was also not at his best.
But what should worry the Indians is the ease with whichsome of the Afghan batsmen played the Indian trio of seamers.
