Rohit Sharma, the Indian skipper was out for ducks in the first two T20I matches against Afghanistan and one former Indian cricketer even went on to the extent of calling him the only failure for India in this series but Hitman made a strong comeback as he scored a century in the 3rd and the final T20I of the series.
India managed to put up a total of 212/4 in their stipulated 20 overs with the help of Rohit Sharma’s blistering knock of 121* runs which he scored in 69 balls. Hitman’s innings included 11 fours & 8 sixes and with this century, he has become the first batter to have 5 T20I centuries to his name. He surpassed Australia’s Glenn Maxwell and India’s Suryakumar Yadav as both of them have four T20I centuries to their names.
After winning the toss, India chose to bat first but the team had a disastrous start as Afghani bowler Fareed Ahmed dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal (4 runs), Virat Kohli (0) and Sanju Samson (0) cheaply. Shivam Dube who scored fifties in last two T20Is was also not able to play a big innings in the 3rd T20I as Azmatullah Omarzai got him out at the score of just 1.
There was a time when India was reeling at the score of 22/4 and everyone felt that Afghanistan might manage to win the last T20 of the series. However at that time, Rinku Singh arrived at the crease and supported his skipper by playing a sizzling knock of 69* runs in 39 balls and his innings included 2 fours & 6 sixes. They both produced a partnership of 190 runs for the fifth wicket.
Fans of Rohit Sharma were quite pleased with his knock and this is how they expressed their happiness:
🚨 Milestone Alert 🚨
Most T20I hundreds in Men's cricket! 🔝 👏
Take. A. Bow Rohit Sharma 🙌 🙌
Follow the Match ▶️ https://t.co/oJkETwOHlL#TeamIndia | #INDvAFG | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/J0hALcdhuF
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 17, 2024
That’s Sharma for you🔥😍 pic.twitter.com/Kl5IXSPsg2
— Mumbai Indians FC (@MIPaltanFamily) January 17, 2024
The one, the only player to score five T20I 100s – ROHIT SHARMA!!! pic.twitter.com/CVUkgM3HcH
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) January 17, 2024
Let's welcome Captain Rohit Sharma The Hitman 5th T20I century in today's match for team India 🙏#RohitSharma𓃵 #RohitSharma#INDvsAFG #Hitman #RinkuSingh pic.twitter.com/qKAhkmrypI
— Ashutosh Srivastava 🇮🇳 (@sri_ashutosh08) January 17, 2024
https://twitter.com/171efx/status/1747638902276624622
Our T20 WC team captain Rohit Sharma.@mipaltan you still have time to think
— Rachit (@gupt_rach) January 17, 2024
T20I wins cha 𝐑𝐀𝐉𝐀! 👑#RohitSharma #INDvAFG pic.twitter.com/n3a4cx0a4X
— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) January 18, 2024
https://twitter.com/Gyanicologist/status/1747973696294424745
Same Same but different 🔥 #RohitSharma pic.twitter.com/N4DuBDLLmp
— Hetvi Gupta (@hetvi_gupta) January 18, 2024
I have never seen a T20 Century less Celebrated. Take a bow @ImRo45 👏#INDvAFG #RohitSharma pic.twitter.com/jrmnryFCOG
— Richard Kettleborough (@RichKettle07) January 17, 2024
Though the target was huge, Afghani batters were also pretty determined to chase the target and their three batters – Rahmanullah Gurbaz (50 runs, 32 balls, 3 fours & 4 sixes), Ibrahim Zadran (50 runs, 41 balls, 4 fours & 1 six) and Gulbadin Naib (55 runs not out, 23 balls, 4 fours & 4 sixes) laid a strong platform for chasing the target successfully. However, the Afghanistan team was not able to score the winning run as the score was tied at 212 and the match went into super over.
Interestingly, the match had two super-overs as the score in the first super over got tied but India managed to win the match by winning the second super-over.
This was the last T20I that India played before the ICC T20I World Cup 2024 which will be hosted by West Indies and USA.
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