Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has light-heartedly said that Karim Janat might have felt like he was in ‘Jahannam’ (hell) after he gave away 36 runs in the final over of India’s innings in the third T20I against Afghanistan. However, Rohit Sharma and Rinku Singh smashed five sixes and a four between them in the last over as Team India set Afghanistan a 213-run target in 20 overs. Although they also scored 212 runs in the main game, India eventually won the match in the second Super Over.\
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said: “22/4 means Fareed had blown us away. Two first-ball ducks – Virat Kohli and Sanju Samson, Yashasvi (Jaiswal) scored four runs, Shivam Dube got out for one, and India were stuck. The match went differently from there. Rohit Sharma scored a century, the fifth of his career and his highest individual score. Rinku Singh also scored an unbeaten 69. 36 runs were scored in Karim Janat’s final over. Five sixes – Janat said this is Jahannam as he was hit so much, so what else was left?”
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Rohit Sharma smashed an unbeaten 121 off 69 balls with the help of 11 fours and eight sixes as well. Rinku hit two fours and six maximums in his unbeaten 39-ball 69. However, Aakash Chopra criticized the Indian batters’ shot selection which led to their poor dismissals as well.
“Another thing worth remembering is that it was a slightly slowish pitch. It was a dry pitch and four of our players got out in the powerplay. The shot-making was extremely ordinary. The opposing team made a lot of changes (to their playing XI). I was thinking why they did that. It wasn’t right for Afghanistan to make so many changes after either winning or losing the series,” Aakash Chopra concluded. “They changed the entire bowling lineup. Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Noor Ahmad and Mujeeb Ur Rahman were all not there. Why? If India had been 22/4 with these bowlers, they wouldn’t have probably allowed them to score 212 runs.”
