AFGHANISTAN
‘Not the end’
Sharjah (UAE), 6pm
Indian bowlers who regularly wiped the moisture off the ball with their towels while the openers kept the score ticking and got the occasional fours and sixes.
The batting pair kept up the charge as Babar reached his fifty with a six off spinner Varun Chakravarthy to get the Pakistan supporters dancing with joy.
Rizwan raised his fifty with a boundary off pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah and then raced past his captain, hitting six fours and three sixes in his 55-ball knock. Babar hit the winning runs to turn a new page in Pakistan-India rivalry.
"We did not execute the things that we wanted to but credit is certainly due - they outplayed us today," admitted Kohli. "They were very professional with the bat as well but we're certainly not a team that presses the panic button, it's the start of the tournament, not the end."
Earlier Afridi picked three crucial early wickets after a lethal first spell to hurt India who elected to field first in the Super 12s encounter watched by 20,000 in the stadium and a global TV audience of hundreds of millions of fans.
Kohli scored his 29th T20I fifty to help the team rebuild before being caught behind off Afridi as Pakistan dismissed the star batsman for the first time in a T20 World Cup game.
Afridi struck the first blow with an express delivery that swung in to trap Rohit Sharma lbw for a first ball duck. Kohli walked in amid raucous applause from the Indian fans who were soon silenced by another ripper from Afridi in his second over.
The 1.98m bowler got KL Rahul with a delivery that came in sharply to take the batsman's thigh pad and rattle the stumps. Kohli and new batter, Suryakumar Yadav attempted to hit back with some positive shots as they smashed Afridi for a six each.
Wicketkeeper Rizwan then pulled off a superb diving catch to cut short Yadav's stay at the wicket with quick bowler Hasan Ali striking in his first over. Yadav made 11.
Rishabh Pant joined Kohli in the middle and the left-right batting pair rebuilt the innings and took India to 60 for three at the halfway stage.
Pant, a wicketkeeper-batsman who survived a close caught behind call off one of his attempted reverse sweeps, kept up the charge with adventurous strokeplay.
He hit Hasan Ali for two successive sixes but finally fell to Shadab Khan's leg-spin in the next over, top-edging a ball that went high and into the hands of the bowler. Pant made 39 off 30 balls. Kohli stood firm to soak up the pressure to get to his 50 in 45 balls.