Reddy and Samson guide India to series victory over Afghanistan

[p]After winning the toss and electing to bowl, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/india/fcOzl2uI/"]‌India[/a] made early inroads, dismissing [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/afghanistan/fPvTErSo/"]Afghanistan[/a] opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz ‌for a duck in the second over before reducing their ‌opponents to 96-5.[/p][p]Captain Ibrahim Zadran anchored Afghanistan's innings with 37 ‌off 33 balls, while a late counter-attack from Mohammad Nabi (20) and Rashid Khan (28) helped them recover to 159-8 from their 20 overs.[/p][p]Reddy was ‌the pick of India's bowlers, returning figures ⁠of 3-24.[/p][embed guid="b4b0ad85-1cf6-49ff-8618-44c16d1a5b28" url="https://x.com/BCCI/status/2099911461544038855" social-type="twitter" /][p]India's chase got off ‌to a blistering start as Samson and Abhishek Sharma put on ​88 runs in just 38 balls for the opening wicket.[/p][p]Rashid sparked Afghanistan's fightback by dismissing Sharma for 39 ​and Samson in quick succession before removing India captain Shreyas Iyer for 11 to leave the hosts on 123-3.[/p][p]However, the ⁠T20 World Cup holders ​had enough batting depth, with Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma adding an unbeaten 40 runs off 25 balls to guide India home. Kishan sealed victory with a boundary as India reached ‌their target with 31 balls to spare.[/p][p]India had opened the series with a commanding seven-wicket win on Sunday.[/p][p]"[b]Looking at the last match and coming into this one, we were demanding a comprehensive win and today was a good one[/b]," Iyer said.[/p][p]"[b]The journey is always going to be a roller-coaster and you have to be in equilibrium as much as possible. The more you embrace the situation, the better it gets[/b]."[/p][embed guid="22f2713e-af35-40bb-a1ba-a75ca9544287" url="https://x.com/BCCI/status/2099896347671605363" social-type="twitter" /][p]India ‌will face Afghanistan in the final T20 at the same ​venue on Thursday.[/p][p]Iyer said the final match would offer ‌an opportunity to give playing time to members of the squad who had sat out the first two games.[/p][p]"[b]Definitely we want all of them to get used to the wicket and get some practice, so will be a ⁠good opportunity to give a ⁠chance to the guys ‌sitting out[/b]," he said.[/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/cricket/afghanistan-fPvTErSo/india-fcOzl2uI/?mid=6aNt7pAT"]Check out the scorecard here[/a][/b][/p]