The Indian team had a field day with Afghanistan in the first ODI of the ongoing series between the two sides. The match was held at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala on June 13th, and the Men in Blue managed to win the game by seven wickets and gain the advantage in the series.ย
It was also a day for the debutants, as the duo of Gurnoor Brar and Harsh Dubey made their debut for the national team. The two stars impressed on their first outing as well, taking three wickets each to their names, helping limit Afghanistan to a score of 194 runs in the first innings of the game.ย
It is worth noting that this was the seventh instance in ODI cricket history that two debutants took three wickets each and only the third instance in a game with only full member countries involved.ย
The first two debutants to take three wickets each in ODI cricket were Australiaโs Ashelley Mallett (3/34) and Keith Stackpole (3/40) against England in the first-ever ODI match back in 1971. Furthermore, the second instance was when Colin Croft (3/50) and Joel Garner (3/27) for the West Indies performed brilliantly against Pakistan back in 1997.ย
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Shubman Gill opened up on the debutantsโ performance
After winning the game, India skipper Shubman Gill took centre stage and talked about the performance that the duo of Harnoor Brar and Harsh Dubey put in the clash and heaped praise on the consistency that they showed in the clash.ย
โVery impressive, upfront, how Gurnoor bowled, brilliant pace and the way he was swinging the ball, the kind of length he bowled consistently and even Harsh as well; after I think in the first over, he went for 16-17 runs, and the way he pulled the game back, trusted himself and kept tossing the ball up,โ Shubman Gill said after the game.ย
โIt was very impressive. I think the middle overs in one-day games is very crucial, if you can keep, as a bowling group, if we can keep building pressure in the middle overs and keep creating opportunities and same when we are batting, if we can keep rotating the strike, keep batting at a healthy run rate, 6-6.5, without losing too many wickets, then you can really set up the game in the death,โ he added.
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