Ton-up Rohit's super show helps India clinch run fest

The match needs two Super Overs to break the deadlock but India would have been glad to see their skipper strike form 

- Somshuvra Laha

Two Super Overs were required to break a deadlock that wouldn't have occurred without Rohit Sharma's fifth T20I hundred. So, it was probably also not a coincidence that Sharma hit the two most important boundaries that ultimately spelt the difference after a belligerent 23-ball 55 from Gulbadin Naib helped Afghanistan pull level with a seemingly insurmountable 212 by India. Applying the finishing touch of this nerve-wracking win were Ravi Bishnoi's skidders that Mohammad Nabi and Rahmanullah Gurbaz failed to get under.

None of this looked probable when India had been reduced to 22/4 in the fifth over. But then Sharma started coming into his own. By the time he was pinging sixes off the roof of the Chinnaswamy Stadium of Bengaluru, Afghanistan looked tired of playing catch-up. Sharma became the first batter to score five T20I hundreds as India rode a record unbeaten 190-run stand between the captain and Rinku Singh. All this, after India were literally one wicket away from a crisis.