Cricket over the years had shown how funny it has been giving unexpected results , low scoring thrillers, high run chases , ties in its glorious chapters over centuries since its inception and it proved no wrong on Wednesday when the encounter between revived India and fighter Afghanistan fueled by the rampaging return of skipper Rohit Sharma back to his Hitman avatar proved to be a classic legend of a match for years to come in cricketing history.
Cricket fans were treated to an absolute rollercoaster at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy stadium, where a riveting encounter between India and Afghanistan unfolded, leaving fans on the edge of their seats. The game, which witnessed a whopping 424 runs in just 40 overs, ultimately came down to the drama of not one but two Super Overs , a rare treat for cricket fans who only were fortunate to watch such a treat in an IPL game in Dubai comprising Mumbai Indians and Punjab Super Kings in 2020 .
Pitch and conditions
The pitch at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru who has a reputation of high scores in the matches played on it due to its flat nature of the deck and shorter boundaries this time around also did not disappointed the spectators .The pitch looked hard and firm having a lot of cracks with some grass covering. It could be a bit two paced wicket suitable for batting first with square boundaries of distances around 60 m and 66 m respectively and the straighter boundary of 70 mts making it a typical Chinnaswamy wicket where high runs were expected.
India this time around having already won the series 2-0 before this match won the toss and chose to bat first. They rested the likes of Arshdeep Singh, Jitesh Sharma and Axar Patel and replaced them with Avesh Khan, Sanju Samson and Kuldeep Yadav. On the other hand Afghanistan in order to test their bench strength made as many as four changes with Sharfuddin Ashraf, Qais Ahmad, Mohammad Saleem Safi, Fareed Ahmad Malik playing in place of Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq.
Horror start for India
Opting to bat, India found themselves in a soup during the powerplay as they lost four wickets, including that of Virat Kohli and Sanju Samson for ducks. The surface appeared to be a tad tacky early on and Afghanistan’s pacers hit the hard length consistently, also aided by some poor shot selection from India’s batters.
Kohli and Samson were both undone by pull shots that didn’t seem apt for the line of the delivery while bounce undid Yashaswi Jaiswal who were unable to pick up the lengths of excellent bowling by Fareed Ahmed who produced an excellent spell of swing bowling on the deck that was tad tacky at the beginning . In between all this, Shivam Dube got a sharp away-seamer to nick one behind to Azmatullah Omarzai At 22/4, the game looked anything like the run fest once expected the game before skipper Rohit Sharma and Rinku Singh occupied the center.
Rohit Sharma & Rinku Singh get the repair job going
After successive ducks in the first 2 T20Is , Skipper Rohit Sharma who was in the news for definitely not performing clearly needed a big score and with the team under pressure, it provided the skipper with an opportunity to make a statement. And what a statement he did make ! It helped him that Rinku got off the blocks quickly enough and adjusted to the surface without much fuss. In fact, Rohit took his eye time to get going and was striking at under 100 during the first 30-odd deliveries. The odd clean strike came but with a lot of rustiness in between.
By the end of first 10 overs India had steadied themselves to 61 for four with Rohit Sharma batting on 27 of 30 and Rinku Singh ably supporting him by remaining unbeaten on 19 of 16 balls ready to unleash in the backend 10 overs of the Indian innings.
Rohit Sharma & Rinku Singh in the beast mode
The next phase of India’s rebuild with Rohit and Rinku Singh came right after the drinks break at the halfway stage when the former unleashed chaos. His urge to pull off the reverse hit came to fruition against left-arm spinner Sarafuddin Saifi as he hit one six behind point and then followed up with more success with the risky shot against Qais in the next over.
In the first white-ball game since that 2023 final where he batted beyond two deliveries, Rohit Sharma unfurled his risk-reward game that came to define him and typify India’s campaign at that marquee tournament. Any doubts regarding his utility to the T20 side in a World Cup year was brazenly quashed over the course of the first two hours of the game.
As the innings approached the business end, it appeared like Afghanistan involuntarily surrendered to the whims of Rohit Sharma as he turbo-charged his way through once he got to a 41-ball 50. Any delivery even resembling a short ball was smashed while fuller ones were dealt with, with minimal movement of the feet. Afghanistan were made to relive the sort of horror and helplessness that Glenn Maxwell inflicted on them with the arguably greatest 50-over World Cup knock ever in Mumbai just over two months ago.
As is his wont in the shorter formats, Rohit Sharma punished the opposition for not getting rid of him early by shifting gears at break-neck pace. After getting 50 off 41, he reached the three-figure mark – the first batter to five in T20Is – off the next 23 balls and ended with 121 runs not out in just 69 deliveries inclusive of 11 fours and 8 towering sixes of which one hit at 98 mts that touched the roof of Chinnaswamy.
This terrific innings was a remiscent of Rohit’s first double ton in ODI’s on the same ground vs Australia in 2013 and he proved after 11 years that at the ripe age of 36, the old wine just gets better in terms of stroke making. On the other hand partner Rinku Singh also did not left behind and showed his prowess with the bat smashing 69 runs of just 39 balls his highest t20I score comprising of 2 fours and 6 sixes and was instrumental in stitching the record 190 runs partnership with skipper Rohit Sharma.
The last five overs yielded whopping 103 runs with last two yielding 58 runs breaking the record of Nepal who scored 55 runs in the last two overs vs Mongolia . Also 36 runs came of the 20th over where inform Rohit smashed 2 sixes and Rinku following it with 3 consecutive sixes to Karim Janat propelling India’s total to 212 for 4 from precarious 22 for 4 by the end of 20 overs and setting the match right in India’s favor.
Afghanistan start on steady note
Set to chase 212 on a placid Chinnaswamy wicket, The visitors needed a strong powerplay to stay ahead of the rate but they chose to build a platform instead, knowing that this is a ground where they could catchup. Rahmanullah Gurbaz was the aggressor as he raced away to a fifty while skipper Ibrahim Zadran found the going tough with respect to upping the ante.
The partnership, though, did the first job of ensuring that Afghanistan didn’t lose too many wickets upfront recking up 85 runs with no wickets lost at end of 10 overs setting up exciting chase for the viewers in the backend.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz falls; Afghanistan stumble
Post break, It took a blinder from Washington Sundar at short cover to break the opening stand but one brought two more for India. The Afghanistan skipper Ibrahim Zadran after scoring an half century himself and Azmatullah Omarzai both fell shortly to Sundar as the innings hit a roadblock briefly. It seemed like the plan to make a platform for the back-end launch had backfired for Afghanistan. It seemed India had the game in hand but the experienced pair of Gulbadin Naib and Mohammad Nabi had different plans in mind.
Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi produce a stunning counterattack
Afghanistan needed 106 off 44 balls when the two joined forces but neither seemed overawed by the task at hand. Both batters struck the ball cleanly from the get-go and the six-hitting was crisp. They added 56 off just 22 balls with Nabi being the aggressor as the game was thrown wide open again. Until Sundar returned again to make another significant impact.
His wide line ploy got the better of the dangerous Nabi as India managed to regain some control. Sundar finished with impressive 3 wickets giving 18 runs in the match .Virat Kohli with his fitness awed everyone with an valiant attempt to save 5 runs while fielding before running 38 mts on the ground to take a catch which dismissed Najibullah Zadran.
Gulbadin Naib’s late assault forces the Super Over
Despite losing Nabi, Gulbadin kept on going for the visitors and it ultimately came down to 19 needed off the final over from Mukesh Kumar. The pacer missed his mark a couple of times and Gulbadin didn’t miss out, to bring the equation down to three needed off the final ball. Mukesh, however, held his nerve to close out with a wide yorker but Afghanistan got the brace needed to take the game to a Super Over. Gulbadin following his brilliant 62 runs in the 2nd t20I continued his form and scored valuable 55 of 23 balls in Afghan’s chase.
First Super Over ends in a tie
Gulbadin walked out to bat with Gurbaz in the Super Over that was bowled by Mukesh. However, a mix up saw the all-rounder getting run out. Gurbaz and Nabi struck a blow each, followed by a controversial ending to the innings. The batters ran a bye and the throw from Samson deflected off Nabi’s leg towards long-on, with the batters running two more for it. Rohit and his mates didn’t seem amused but there wasn’t anything illegal about the running which was justified by the rules in the rulebook.
With a target of 17 to get, the Indian captain Rohit Sharma then smoked Omarzai for successive sixes to get the equation down to three needed off two. Then with two needed off the final ball, Rohit retired hurt to ensure that the faster runner in Rinku could capitalize. But Jaiswal could only toe-end one to the keeper Gurbaz, which meant just a single was possible forcing an epic Second Super over for the first time in International T20 match.
India clinch the second Super Over and the series 3-0
By now, Rohit was on his reserves, given the volume of work he had to do through the game. But the skipper who has been relentless with the bat throughout the day hammered Fareed Ahmad for a six and a four to set up things nicely. Only for Rinku to fall first ball and then Samson ran Rohit out, leaving Afghanistan with a gettable target of 12.
But Rohit’s brilliant captain’s brain came to fore and India punted with the leg spin of Ravi Bishnoi ahead of Avesh Khan who had an forgettable match giving 55 runs in his 4 overs in the main innings. Ravi Bishnoi was the star who delivered under pressure.
A skiddy half-tracker first ball was flat-batted to long-off’s throat by Nabi while Gurbaz almost repeated the same mistake to fall third ball, giving India the win in the match and the series 3-0 with an entertainer that etched down the cricketing history and enthralled the spectators and viewers all round the globe.
Captain’s views and Road Ahead
Indian Captain and Player of the Match Rohit Sharma said after winning :
“I don’t remember when was the last time this happened. I think I batted 3 times in one of the IPL games. Creating the partnership was important and we (Rinku and I) kept talking to each other to not lose that intent in big games and it was a good game for us to be in, the pressure was there and was important to bat long and deep and not compromise on the intent we want to show,”
The last couple of series that he played, he showed what he can do with the bat. Very calm and knows his strength pretty well. He is coming off age and doing what is expected of him and he has done really well for India. Augurs well for the team moving forward, wanted someone like that at the backend and we know what he has done in the IPL and he has carried that to the Indian colors as well.
Losing Captain Afghanistan’s Ibrahim Zadran said:
“We are happy with the overall performance. We played good cricket, unfortunately we lost in the superover. We got lots of positives from this series and this experience will help us in the upcoming T20 World Cup,”
The boys gave their best in these 3 games. We never played this kind of cricket in T20, especially against India and in batting department as well. Really happy. We will take some positives from this series and focus on improving a little bit in the T20 World Cup.
Shivam Dube who was The Player of the series for 124 runs and 2 wickets said :
“As an all-rounder you always want to be the Player of the Series, and this is something new I achieved in my life and it feels really good. We scored a lot of runs on this ground and we thought we would win before the superover, but such is cricket and well done to both teams. There are many things I want to improve, especially in my bowling and I’m trying to get better with each passing game,”
Rohit Sharma collected the trophy for the record 42nd time in his T20I career equaling MS Dhoni’s feat and handed it to youngsters Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rinku Singh. Going Ahead India who has now played its last international white ball T20I series before the World cup will donned white colors to lock horns with England in an exciting 5 match test series starting 25th January 2024.Afghanistan will turn attention to the one-off Test against Sri Lanka, starting on February 2nd in Colombo.
On the whole , the Afghanistan India T20I series came to an end with a match that turned out to be an riveting encounter between India and Afghanistan with both teams fighting till the end leaving fans on the edge of their seats. The game, which witnessed a whopping 424 runs in just 40 overs, ultimately came down to the drama of not one but two Super Overs , a rare treat for cricket fans and history who only were fortunate to watch such a treat in an international game .