By Amlan Chakraborty
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -World Cup hosts India cantered to their second successive win of the tournament after captain Rohit Sharma’s incendiary century set up their eight-wicket thrashing of Afghanistan on Wednesday.
Rohit belted 131 off 84 balls, clobbering five sixes and 16 fours, as twice champions India chased down a 273-run victory target with 15 overs to spare at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Virat Kohli made 55 not, sealing the easy win with a boundary.
Electing to bat, Afghanistan were 63-3 in the 14th over before skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (80) and Azmatullah Omarzai (62) combined in a 121-run stand to frustrate India.
A total in the vicinity of 300 looked within their reach but Afghanistan lost a clutch of wickets towards the end to settle for a total which proved inadequate against India’s formidable batting lineup.
India face arch-rivals Pakistan in the tournament’s most anticipated match in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Christian Radnedge and Ed Osmond)
