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In the third and last ODI match being played between India and Afghanistan at the historic MA Chidambaram (Chepauk) Stadium in Chennai, a miracle was seen which had never happened before in the history of Indian cricket. The pair of Team India’s dashing captain Rohit Sharma and tall, lethal fast bowler Prasidh Krishna created a stir as soon as they entered the field. Prasidh Krishna, who returned in this match after being out of the playing eleven of the previous match, completely destroyed Afghanistan’s top order with his sharp bowling and captain Rohit Sharma’s leopard-like fielding in the slips. With this, both these greats have registered a very rare and unique world record in ODI cricket.
Famous ‘Test match’ avatar on Chepauk pitch, wickets continuously shaking
Prasidh Krishna took command for the Indian team after losing the toss and came to bowl first. Taking advantage of the extra bounce and tremendous seam movement provided by Chennai’s red clay pitch, Prasidh created fear in the minds of Afghanistan’s batsmen. He showed the way to the pavilion by dismissing dangerous opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz in the second over of the game with his very first ball of the match. Gurbaz hit the ball going outside the off stump and behind the wicket, prompt fielder Rohit Sharma took a brilliant catch without making any mistake.
After this it seemed as if the fall of wickets had started. In his next overs, Prasidh Krishna trapped Rahmat Shah and then set batsman Ibrahim Zadran in the same manner with his deadly outswinger and inswinger balls. The shots of both these batsmen also went towards the slip exactly like Gurbaz, where Rohit Sharma was already sitting ready for the hunt. Rohit broke Afghanistan’s back by taking two more excellent catches in the slip.
For the first time in ODI history! Rohit-Prasidh pair created a unique mega-record
It became a major record in cricket history with the opening three batsmen being dismissed by the same bowler and all three of them being caught by the same fielder (Rohit Sharma). This is the first time in the history of ODI cricket that an Indian bowler and fielder pair has taken the first three wickets of the opposition team together. Before this, only three pairs have been able to achieve such a feat in world cricket and now Prasidh-Rohit pair has become the first Indian pair and the fourth pair in the world to join this elite club.
Top pairs of the world who took the first three wickets in an innings of an ODI match:
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Douglas Hondo (bowler) / Alistair Campbell (fielder) — vs India, 2002
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Alzarri Joseph (bowler) / Shai Hope (wicketkeeper) — vs England, 2017
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Saurabh Netravalkar (bowler) / Smit Patel (wicketkeeper) — vs UAE, 2024
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Prasidh Krishna (bowler) / Rohit Sharma (fielder) — vs Afghanistan, 2026 (today)
The fear of Prasidh Krishna’s bowling was such that he bowled the first two overs of his spell with maidens. Afghanistan batsman Rahmat Shah opened the team’s account against Prasidh by hitting a four towards fine leg on his 16th ball.
India eyes a clean sweep in the series, major changes in the teams
The Indian team, which has already taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, has entered the field with the intention of giving a clean sweep to Afghanistan by winning this last match. For this formality match, the Indian team management has rested KL Rahul, Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav under the workload management and rotation policy, while Nitish Kumar Reddy, Prasidh Krishna and Harsh Dubey have returned to the team. At the same time, captain of the visiting team Afghanistan Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss and chose to bowl first and made a total of four major changes in his team.
The final playing eleven of both the countries is as follows:
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill (captain), Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Harsh Dubey, Gurnoor Brar, Prasidh Krishna, Prince Yadav.
Afghanistan: Rehmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Darwish Rasooli, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Umarzai, Rashid Khan, AM Ghazanfar, Zia ur Rehman Sharifi, Farid Ahmed Malik.
