India and Afghanistan Play Thrilling Tie in Third T20I, Rohit Sharma’s Century Goes in Vain

India and Afghanistan played a scintillating 3rd T20I as the match ended in a tie after the visitors chased down the target of 212 in 20 overs which led to a Super Over.

Gulbadin Naib was the man of the moment for Afghanistan as he scored 55 runs to drag his team to the target and he was aptly supported by openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran who both scored 50s of their own.

Earlier, India skipper Rohit Sharma produced a marvellous, situation-defying hundred, his fifth in T20Is, as India recovered from a top-order meltdown to post a massive 212 for 4 against Afghanistan.

Rohit (121 not out, 69b, 11×4, 8×6) and his perfect sidekick Rinku Singh (69 n,o, 39b, 2×4, 6×6) shared 190 runs for a stellar, unbeaten fifth-wicket stand as India came back from a flaky 22 for four after opting to bat first.

Rohit even had to bring out a rather rare shot from his arsenal, reverse sweep to unsettle Afghan spinners.

In fact, a reverse sweep off leg-spinner Qais Ahmad fetched him a T20 fifty for the first time since October 2022.

Of course, there were those inevitable and archetypal pulls too that make a Rohit innings such a compelling watch.

The Mumbaikar’s on-one-leg pull off pacer Mohammed Saleem that sailed into second tier was an astounding shot.

Soon, the fifty blossomed into a hundred off 63 balls, Rohit’s first in T20I since his 111 against the West Indies at Indore in 2018, which came through a sliced boundary behind point off pacer Omarzai.

This was also Rohit’s highest score in T20Is, surpassing his 118 against Sri Lanka at Indore in 2017.

At the other end, Rinku had the simple job of keeping his end up and the left-hander did that job with maturity.