The Indian cricket team managed to whitewash the 3-match T20I series against Afghanistan by defeating the visitors in the nail-biting encounter. Though India put up a huge total of 212/4 batting first, the Afghanistan team didn’t leave any stone unturned in chasing the target because of which the match went into super-over.
However, India managed to win the match in super-over and sealed the series in its name. The 3rd T20I was played at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru and after winning the toss, India chose to bat first. The Afghani bowler, Fareed Ahmed was on fire as he dismissed three Indian batters (Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli and Sanju Samson) quickly and Azmatullah Omarzai sent Shivam Dube back to the dugout after he scored 1 run leaving India reeling at the score of 22/4. But skipper Rohit Sharma (121*) and Rinku Singh (69*) played sensational knocks and stitched an important partnership of 190 runs for the fifth wicket.
Afghanistan also batted with three top order batters (Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran and Gulbadin Naib) scoring fifties but their momentum fumbled towards the end and the match got tied.
After the match, Rohit Sharma was full of praises for Rinku Singh as the Indian skipper stated, “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.”
He further said, “Very calm and knows his strength pretty well. He is coming of age and doing what is expected of him and he has done well for India. It 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 colours as well.”
Well played, Rinku Singh!
