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What a match and after forty four overs, we finally have a result via the second super over. It was clinical hitting from both sides and in the end it was Ravi Bishnoi who held his nerves in the end and landed two balls in the right area to send the Chinnaswamy crowd into delirium. Rohit Sharm smashed his 5th T20I century while Rinku Singh continued in his merry way. Even coming to Afghanistan, it was some exceptional range hitting by Nabi and Gulbadin Naib and in the end, it turned out to be a cliffhanger. Lot of cricketing action lined up tomorrow as well. Do join us then but for now, this is myself (Arya Sekhar Chakraborty) signing off also on behalf of my fellow commentators Pragadeesh and Sooryanarayan Sesha. Goodnight! Cheers!
Rohit Sharma will recieve the trophy from Raghuram Bhatt and it's time for the players to join in to pose for the photographs. Rohit Sharma hands the trophy over to Rinku and Yashasvi.
Rohit Sharma (Player of the Match) - We don't do this in Test matches. Once in IPL, we played two Super overs and I had to bat three times. Creating a partnership is important but we kept taking to each other not to lose the intent. We may end up in a similar situation in big games, so we batted as long as possible but not to compromise the intent that we wanted to show. (On Rinku Singh) In the last couple of series, he showed what he can do with the bat. He's pretty calm and knows what's he doing. Whenever he gets the chance, he shows good impression. Moving forward, we wanted someone who has a clear mindset at the back end and he's doing things brilliantly. We saw him how he played in the IPL and he carried the same mindset in the International games as well
Shivam Dube (Player of the Series): Yeah definitely. As an all rounder you always want to be the Player of the Series and this series has provided me that. It was very tight. We scored a lot of runs but they batted very well. We didn't think about the super over but it's cricket and anything can happen. There are many things in batting bowling and fielding. I have learnt many things, especially in bowling.
Ibrahim Zadran (Afghanistan captain): To be honest I am very happy with the overall performance. We put up a good performance but lost the super over. We have got lots of positives from the series. It will be a great help when we go down for the T20 World Cup. We never played this kind of cricket against India before especially in T20s. In the batting department we were very good.
Match tied (Super over tied, India won the second super over)
Rohit Sharma 121*(69) | Washington Sundar 3/18(3) Gulbadin Naib 55(23) | Fareed Ahmad Malik 3/20(4)
When Mohammad Nabi and Gulbadin Naib were going great guns, it looked like Afghanistan would give India a tough run for their money ad they did exactly that. The target of 213 looked a bit too much at the halfway stage but Afghanistan gave a great account of themselves. The Afghan batters gave their all but in the end, the partnership between Rohit Sharma and Rinku Singh didn't allow them to get one more but managed to tie the game and take it to the Super over. The Afghanistan openers needed to get off to a flying start. It turned out to be a decent one for the visitors as Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran took their time in the first two overs.
Avesh Khan was taken to the cleaners in his opening over which opened the floodgate for Afghanistan to start hitting the big shots. Gurbaz was the one who got going with a flurry of boundaries at 51/0, Afghanistan had the foundation to go berserk in the final stretch of the innings. Gurbaz went onto smash a well-crafted half-century which came after the 10th over. The required rate kept climbing but Afghanistan never lost hope. Ibrahim Zadran also departed after his half-century as Washington Sundar bowled superbly in the middle overs.
The departure of Ibrahim brought Mohammad Nabi in and it was the partnership between Nabi and Gulbadin Naib which turned the game on its head. Nabi started climbing onto any slot deliveries while Naib wasn't far away either. Three over big overs brought Afghanistan back into the game and Rohit had to bring back Sundar into the attack who did the job. Nabi was forced to play towards the bigger side of the boundary and was holed out in the deep. Two more quick wickets put them further on the backfoot and it looked India would get this done comfortably.
However Gulbadin Naib had other ideas. He waited for the right opportunities and kept plundering sixes at will. He reached a well-deserved half-century in the penultimate over and took the equation to 19 off the final over. Naib again turned it on as he smoked a massive six of Mukesh Kumar. He ended up conceding 18 runs taking the match to the super over. Two teams couldn't be separated even in the first super over as both ended on 16 runs each.
Rohit Sharma smoked a couple of lusty blows in the first super over before smoking a six and a four in the second to make it a memorable day for him personally and from the team's point of view. Mukesh Kumar couldn't quite hold his nerves and conceded 16 runs before Ravi Bishnoi did the trick in the second one to take India over the finish line.
Let's hear from Ravi Bishnoi: (How's the heart rate?) It was quite fast (laughs). Both Avesh and I were prepared to bowl the Super Over but I was asked to bowl since two right-handers came out to bat. The plan was to bowl stump to stump and bowl back of a length off the second ball since if he looks to hit straight he'll have to play off the back foot. Feels really good - can't be a better feeling than defending the Super Over. I'll keep focusing on how I can help my team win games. The batters weren't ready for that ball so I tried bowling the leg-spinner and playing in the Ranji Trophy also helped me a lot.
Game over as India win in the second super over. The crowd have been thoroughly entertained. Afghanistan did their part but couldn't quite hold onto their nerves. Ravi Bishnoi with a brilliant over as he gets the job done for his team. It was a long day in the office for players from both teams and in the end, India will be a relieved unit.
0.3 Ravi Bishnoi to Rahmanullah Gurbaz, OUT! It took two super overs but finally, we have a winner. It's a historic night at this iconic Chinnaswamy stadium as India complete a clean sweep. It's a smart decision to bowl a spinner in the super over and Bishnoi delivers it. Quicker on a good length outside off, Gurbaz sits deep to play a lofted drive but it's a difficult shot to play against Bishnoi. Rinku takes it safely to put this game to bed.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz c Rinku Singh b Ravi Bishnoi 0 (1b, 0x4, 0x6)
0.2 Ravi Bishnoi to Karim Janat, spears it fuller outside off, Janat opens the blade to only carve this down to backward point for a single
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M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
