India National Cricket Team modern-day batting greats Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma shared a warm hug during the third and final T20I of the home series against the Ibrahim Zadran-led Afghanistan National Cricket Team at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday, January 17.
India National Cricket Team won the toss and elected to bat first in the dead rubber T20I. Rohit Sharma while speaking at the toss stated that they wanted to bat first because they bowled first in the first two matches and their decision had nothing to do with the surface at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
The decision to bat first didn’t favor the side as India were reduced to 4-22 with Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shivam Dube, and Sanju Samson back in the hut. India looked down and out and one more wicket would have pushed India out of the game.
However, the skipper Rohit Sharma and emerging batsman Rinku Singh didn’t let that happen and built a stupendous partnership. They batted cautiously before destroying the Afghanistan bowling unit. They added 190* runs to help India post 212/4 on the board.
Chasing the target, Gulbadin Naib, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and Mohammad Nabi showed a batting masterclass and helped their side level the scores.
Afghanistan also expected Najibullah Zadran to fire with the bat and play a part in their run-chase, but he wasn’t able to make any major contribution and was dismissed for 5 runs off 3 balls.
He was dismissed as Virat Kohli grabbed an excellent running catch in the 19th over. Pacer Avesh Khan bowled a full and wide delivery and Najibullah tried to throw his hands on the drive. He got a lot of height and not a lot of distance. Virat Kohli ran a long way across to his right from long-off, kept his eyes on the ball throughout, and pulled off a brilliant two-handed catch. After taking the catch, Virat Kohli shared a warm hug with skipper Rohit Sharma and the moment went viral on the internet.
As an all-rounder, you always want to be the Player of the Series – Shivam Dube
Shivam Dube was awarded Player of the Series for the contribution of 124 runs and 2 wickets from 3 games in the series against Afghanistan. Speaking after the match, he said that he feels good to achieve something new in life.
“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 super over, 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.”
Talking further about the third T20I between India and Afghanistan, the teams then played two thrilling Super Overs to finally decide the winner, which was India. The final over of the match was bowled by Ravi Bishnoi and the young spinner did a fantastic job by picking two wickets.
