India registered a comfortable nine-wicket win in the third ODI against Afghanistan at the M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. They produced another dominant show with both bat and ball, leaving the visitors in tatters. They failed to execute their plans throughout the series, as India proved to be too hot to handle.
Batting first in the third ODI, Afghanistan lost four wickets for only 36 runs. Pacer Prasidh Krishan was breathing fire in the powerplay and absolutely decimated the visitors. Since then, the pair of Hashmatullah Shahidi and Azmatullah Omarzai stitched an important partnership of 105 runs, which rescued Afghanistan from a very troubling spot.ย
After Omarzai departed for 50 runs, the visitors once again felt the pressure, but Shahidi managed to keep up with the tempo. The captain played a valuable knock of 102 runs, but he had very little support from the other end. Wickets fell like a house of cards as Afghanistan were bundled for 218 runs in the first innings. It was Prasidh who removed Shahidi in the end and with that, the Karnataka pacer completed his maiden five-for in the format.
Jaiswal, Rohit dominateย second innings
The Indian openers dominated the proceedings in the second innings of the match. There was plenty of pressure on opener Rohit Sharma to prove his mettle after having a quiet series. However, the senior India international rose to the occasion, scoring 79 runs. His opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal also played some phenomenal cricket, scoring his second ODI century.
He remained unbeaten for 110 runs off 86 balls. The youngster also finished things off with a six to cement a memorable win for India. Shreyas Iyer, who batted at number three, scored unbeaten 20.ย
Prasidh was eventually adjudged the Player of the Match for his dominant spell with the new ball. Shubman Gill was awarded the Player of the Series trophy for scoring 238 runs in two innings and also registering his maiden series win as ODI skipper.ย
Afghanistan (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Darwish Rasooli, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, AM Ghazanfar, Zia Ur Rahman Sharifi, Fareed Ahmad Malik
India (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill (c), Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Harsh Dubey, Gurnoor Brar, Prasidh Krishna, Prince Yadav
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