Afghanistan captain Ibrahim Zadran said dew made life difficult for his bowlers and fielders during India's run chase in the first T20 International in Mohali on Thursday.
"In the second innings, there was dew and gripping the ball was difficult. I can say that the boys tried really well. We will try to improve our fielding. We were quite lazy with the fielding today. We will try to improve batting as well. Bowling, we have no issue. We will focus on what we did wrong today," Zadran said after losing the series opener by six wickets.
He pointed out that toss became a crucial factor considering the heavy dew in the evening as India's bowlers limited Afghanistan .
"We were short 13-15 runs. We lost the toss too. But the boys fought well. We were trying to have a good powerplay start but we lost wickets then. One of us should've gone for 14-15 overs but we lost back-to-back wickets. When new batters came, we came under pressure."
Shivam Dube smashed a belligerent half-century to power India to an easy victory and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Left-hander Dube gave a good account of himself ahead of the T20 World Cup in June with an unbeaten 60 off 40 balls to help India overcome a 159-run target with 15 balls to spare.
Electing to field, India restricted Afghanistan to a modest 158/5.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (23) and Ibrahim Zadran (25) put on a 50-run opening partnership but it was Mohammad Nabi's 42 off 27 balls that helped Afghanistan cross the 150-mark.
Left-arm spinner Axar Patel led India's disciplined bowling effort, claiming 2/23 in his tidy four overs.
