Rohit-Rinku in unbeaten 190 runs for 5th wicket
G. Krishnan
Bengaluru, Jan 18:
After falling for zeroes in the first two matches, captain Rohit Sharma blazed his way to an unbeaten 121 as India reached 212/4 here on Wednesday night.
Afghanistan threatened to post their first victory in regulation time against India in eight T20Is after their first three – Rahmanullah Gurbaz (50), Ibrahim Zadran (50) and Gulbadin Naib (55*) scored fifties and veteran Md Nabi scoring an invaluable 34.
However, Mukesh Kumar defended 19 runs that Afghanistan needed off the last over, conceding only 18, Naib knocking off 16 while two were wides, Afghanistan finishing with 212/6 after 20 overs.
It was the first time that a match saw two Super Overs before a result was obtained. The first also ended in a tie at 16 runs each with India emerging victorious after 44 exciting overs, making a clean sweep of the series 3-0.
There was drama in the first Super Over when Sharma, after hitting two successive sixes and a single off Rahmanullah Omarzai, retired himself after the fifth ball when two were needed for a win. Rinku Singh, a quicker runner between wickets replaced him. Yashasvi Jaiswal failed to connect the last ball and stole a bye, forcing the match into the second Super Over.
While Sharma voluntarily retired himself, it was deemed as Retired Out for technical reasons. As per rules, a batsman once out in Super Over cannot bat in the subsequent Super Over. But, as it turned out, Sharma batted in the second Super Over, scoring 11 off the first three deliveries by Farid Malik before being dismissed for the first time in this match, run out off the fifth delivery. India tallied 11 in Super Over II with both Rinku and Sharma out.
It is learnt that since Sharma was not dismissed by a bowler, he was ‘not out’ and hence could bat in the Super Over II with the permission of the opposition captain.
India went on to win the Super Over II, thanks to leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi picking up both the wickets, Nabi and Gurbaz hitting straight to long-off as the bowler pulled the length back a bit and forced them to sky to Rinku. It was a master move by Sharma to give Bishnoi the bowl, going with his gut feeling that a spinner would pick up the two wickets.
Earlier, after choosing to bat, Sharma’s score is his highest in T20Is and his fifth hundred, the most by any batsman in this format, leaving behind his compatriot Suryakumar Yadav and Glenn Maxwell at four each.
Sharma saw four wickets fall including first ball ducks of Virat Kohli and Sanju Samson inside five overs for only 22. Sharma was on 7 when Rinku Singh joined him. From the fourth delivery of the fifth over to the end of the innings, it was total mayhem with a dozen fours and 14 sixes hit by both the batsmen combined.
Sharma and Rinku (69*) shared 190 for the unbroken fifth wicket, the highest by any pair for this wicket in T20Is and the highest for any wicket by India. Rinku reached his second T20I fifty and showed great temperament and composure despite the dire situation that he walked in to bat. He helped Sharma raise 103 runs in the last five overs and finished the innings by hitting the last three deliveries for sixes after Sharma collected a four and two sixes earlier in the over sent by Karim Janat. The last over alone yielded 36 runs.
They proved crucial in the end, as did Virat Kohli’s save at the long-on boundary of a certain six, jumping at the right time to pull the ball back in and concede only one run, saving five runs in the process in the 17th over.
