T20 world Cup: India beats minnows Afghanistan by seven-wicket

St. Lucia (West Indies) May 1 (ANI): Team India on Saturday beat Afghanistan by seven wickets in their first Group C match of the World Twenty20 at Beausejour Stadium here.

Put to bat first, Afghanistani team could manage to score just 115 for eight with the help of Noor Ali (50 off 48 balls) and Asghar Stanikzai (30 off 33 balls) sharing 68 runs to pull the team out of trouble, after the team lost its first three wickets for just 29 runs.

For India, Ashish Nehra took three wickets and Praveen Kumar claimed two.

Left-armer Ashish Nehra grabbed 3-19 to spearhead India, which won the toss and chose to bowl.

Nehra's two short balls removed Karim Sadiq and Mohammad Shahzad cheaply to give India an early fillip.

Praveen Kumar claimed 2-14 in the match.

Team India, however, finished the match by chasing the small score in just 14.5 overs with Murali Vijay (48) and Yuvraj Singh (23 not out) doing the bulk of the scoring.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni struck two sixes in his unbeaten 15. (ANI)