Indian captain Rohit Sharma held centrestage as the Men in Blue edged Afghanistan after two Super Overs in the third and final Twenty20 International (T20I) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday night. Rohit was under a fair bit of pressure coming into the game as he had fallen for ducks in the first two games.
The drama began in the opening over itself as umpire Virender Sharma failed to pick up an inside edge off Rohit's bat and instead gave it as four leg byes when he was on zero.
Once the TV replays confirmed the edge, a smiling Rohit was quick to let Virender known that his mistake had cost him four runs and that he was coming off two consecutive ducks!
Rohit saw his opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shivam Dube and Sanju Samson perish quickly as India found themselves in a spot at 22/4 in the fifth over. Both Kohli and Sanju fell for first-ball blobs off Fareed Ahmed's bowling.
Rohit bided his time and steadied the ship in the company of Rinku Singh. The right-left combination took attack to the Afghan bowlers in the second half of the Indian innings.
Rohit got to his fifty off 41 balls, with a reverse pull four. The 'Hitman' was livid at Virender after he refused to call a no-ball from debutant medium-pacer Mohammad Saleem for height.
Rohit took out his anger on the Afghan bowlers as he became the first man to notch up five T20I hundreds. Rinku too joined the fun as India amassed 103 off the last five overs to end up with 212/4. In fact the duo plundered 36 runs, including a no-ball, off the final over of the innings bowled by Karim Janat.
Some brilliant hitting from Gulbadin Naib ensured the Afghans tied the match and forced a Super Over. There was no dearth of action as Afghan all-rounder Mohammed Nabi ran two additional byes after the throw from wicketkeeper Sanju ricocheted off his pads off the final ball bowled by Mukesh. Rohit was left fuming as India needed 17 to win in the Super Over instead of what would have been 15.
Rohit smashed 13 off just four balls and then took himself off with India needing two off the final ball to get a quicker runner in Rinku. However, Jaiswal could only manage a single as the game headed into another Super Over.
There was further drama as Rohit returned to bat in the second Super Over. The ICC rule states that a batter who got out in the opening Super Over can't take part in the second one. A match official later explained that if the opposition captain or coach do not have any objection, a batsman can bat again in the second Super Over.
Rohit's incredible hitting continued as he smashed 11 off three balls as India set a target of 12. Leggie Ravi Bishnoi got both the Afghan batters for ducks as India won by 11 runs to sweep the series 3-0.
Rohit was the obvious choice as player of the match at the end of a humdinger.
