India vs Afghanistan 2024 Cricket

'What A Day It Was For Cricket Fans!' - Fans react as India and Afghanistan play 'thriller for the ages' in third T20I, with India winning nail-biting encounter

India and Afghanistan took on each other in the nail-biting thriller in the third and last T20I of the three-match series, at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

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Mathew K
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Rohit Sharma, India vs Afghanistan (File Photo: X)

Rohit Sharma, India vs Afghanistan (File Photo: X)

India and Afghanistan locked horns in the ‘thriller for the ages’ in the third and last T20I of the three-match series at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday, January 17 2024. This match ended up as the most iconic and memorable match in the history of T20I cricket.

It was the first instance in the history of T20I cricket when a match entered into the second super over to get the result of the match after both teams ended up scoring the same number of runs in the allotted 40 overs of the game.

The hosts’ skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bat first; batting first, the men in blue were in extreme trouble after losing 4 wickets just at the score of 22 runs in 4.3 overs. But then came the sensational century from the Indian skipper and veteran opener, Rohit Sharma, including his outstanding unbeaten partnership of 190 runs for the fifth wicket with Rinku Singh.

This partnership helped India to post a big total of 212 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in the allotted 20 overs; Rohit ended up scoring 121 runs off just 69 balls with 11 fours and 8 sixes, alongside Rinku’s 69 runs off just 39 balls, with 2 fours and 6 sixes with the bat.

Fareed Ahmed scalped 3 wickets for Afghanistan, alongside one wicket picked by Azmatullah Omarzai.

Gulbadin Naid in the second innings, brings up a life in the dead rubber

While chasing the target, Afghanistan openers provided a brilliant start scoring 93 runs for the first wicket in 11 overs before Rahmanullah Gurbaz was caught at an individual score of 50 runs by Washington Sunday in a brilliant effort on Kuldeep Yadav’s delivery. However, with two half-centuries from Ibrahim Zadran and Gulbadin Naidb supported by a quick 34-run cameo by Mohammed Nabi, Afghanistan managed to equal the score with India, scoring 212 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in the allotted 20 overs.

Then came the super-over, in which Afghanistan batted first and scored 16 runs for the loss of 1 wicket; in response, India on the back of Rohit’s two sixes, ended up scoring 16 runs for the loss of one wicket and the super-over too ended up getting tied.

Then came the second super-over of the match, which made this match the first-ever T20I of its kind; in the second super-over, India scored 11 runs, all from Rohit Sharma’s bat; in response to which, Ravi Bishnoi scalped both the wickets of Afghanistan before they could get off the mark; eventually India won the match by winning the second super over by 11 runs.

This match also ignited some amazing reactions from cricket fans over X (formerly Twitter), who lauded both teams.

Here’s how fans reacted:

rohit sharma Featured India vs Afghanistan T20I series