IND vs AFG highlights, 3rd ODI: India beat Afghanistan by 9-wickets and cleansweep series in Chennai

A blazing century from Yashasvi Jaiswal, complemented by a polished 79 from skipper Rohit Sharma, powered India to a nine-wicket victory over Afghanistan at Chepauk on Sunday, sealing a 3-0 clean sweep in the ODI series.

Jaiswal and Rohit set the tone with a commanding opening stand, their attacking intent making light work of the chase. Jaiswal was the aggressor from the outset, unfurling three boundaries in the first over. The elegant left-hander raced to his half-century in just 39 balls, propelling India past 100 within 13 overs. (Read more)

This is a cracking innings from Yashasvi Jaiswal. There is hardly anything he did wrong in this knock. When there were field restrictions, he went after the bowling, and once the field had spread, he rotated the strike nicely and waited for the poor deliveries to come his way. This is a classic ODI innings from the young opener. He is making a strong case for himself with knocks like this to become an all-format player. As we update, Shreyas Iyer has changed the gears here. He did take 15 deliveries seems like now he is adjusted to the pace of the surface.

Well, Rohit Sharma has gone past Yashasvi Jaiswal here. This is the feature of the partnership batting when one batter is going, the other batter bides his time, and after a certain point, it is vice-versa. When Jaiswal was going at the start in the powerplay, Rohit did take his time, but in the last 15 minutes or so, Jaiswal has slowed down a bit, and Rohit has started to take on the bowling. This is exceptional partnership batting. The question now is who is going to get the century first, is it going to be Jaiswal or Rohit? We will have to wait and see. As we update, Rohit has fallen here.

Rohit Sharma has gone past his half-century here. This has been a fabulous innings from the former Indian skipper. He did start a bit slowly and played a few scratchy shots, which is unlike him, but as his innings went on, he looked in sublime touch. The Indian think tank would be pretty happy given that both the openers have gone past the half-century and are looking in pretty good touch. Prasidh, too, who was coming out of the bench, looked in pretty good rhythm. So the Indian team is looking in pretty good shape in this format as well, despite not playing it as much.

Yashasvi Jaiswal has scored a half-century. It is a pretty good innings from him. When he had the deliveries to hit, that is what he did; when the deliveries were not there to hit, he rotated the strike nicely. Rohit Sharma at the other end also supported Yashasvi Jaiswal pretty well in this innings. Rashid Khan has come into the attack; it might be too late considering the number of runs India has already got in this game. And we can see Ishan Kishan is padded up as well. It does seem like India wants to finish this game as quickly as they can.

Yashasvi Jaiswal has gotten to a sublime start here, while Rohit has fallen behind a bit, but now he, too, has started to take on the bowling. Afghanistan bowlers have not been able to hit their mark, and both Indian batters have made the most of it. Indian bowlers early on were pretty disciplined to start with, but it has been quite the opposite from Afghanistan; they have sprayed the ball all over the place without much success. The quality of both Rohit and Jaiswal is more than capable of punishing those poor deliveries. Shahidi has come into the field will be interesting to see if that will bring any change.

India has breezed past 30 here in no time. Runs have come pretty easily for them. Afghanistan's bowlers could not put any pressure on the Indians whatsoever. Rohit Sharma, after getting a few sighters in, is now looking to play a few aggressive shots. Under lights, there will be some help for the bowlers in these conditions, especially with the evening breeze, but the Afghanistan bowlers have not been able to hit their mark, which allowed India to get a start. The longer these two bat together, the more damage they will do, and they will do it pretty quickly.

The Indian innings began with 5/0 on the board, even before openers Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal had faced a single delivery in the second innings of the third ODI against Afghanistan at Chepauk on Sunday. This unusual start came after India were awarded five penalty runs following a mistake by Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi in the first innings.

Shahidi, whose rearguard effort took Afghanistan to a respectable total, was penalised for running on the restricted area of the pitch. It was the last delivery of the 40th over when Shahidi breached the restricted area for the second time. On-field umpires Chris Gaffaney and Rohan Pandit noted the infringement, disallowed the single he had taken, and handed five penalty runs to India. (Read more)

(You still have the ball in your hand?) Yeah, I've got it in my pocket right now, but yeah, really happy to be coming in on a hot day, bowling that well, helping the team, so pretty happy now. (Has there been a conscious effort in bowling fuller) Yes, the work's been going on for quite some time now. I would say we've been working really hard on length all over the place, be it whatever format I'm playing. And it's nice to see things coming off, and definitely Morne's really been in my ears for quite some time now, and I'm happy to be bowling well today. (Did you want to bowl the sixth over, were you cooked by that time?) No, honestly, I was really, really tired. It was pretty hot, but no complaints. I did end up bowling the fifth one, got the fourth wicket there. But the more important thing for us to turn up on a hot day to put out that performance on the field, really good.

This has been pretty unusual over the last 15-20 minutes in the context of the game. Shahidi seems to be suffering with cramps in the middle and is not able to take those runs, and the last two batters trying to sneak that single have fallen. Additionally, Afghanistan are also penalised for five runs as Shahidi, despite the warnings, continued to run on the middle of the pitch. Well, a fight spirit through the middle overs is tappering off, and a lot of it has to do with the heat. Anyways, Shahidi is closing on in on his first century, and that is the thing at stake here for Afghanistan.

Harsh Dubey has come back into the attack. Earlier, in his spell, he started a bit too defensive and was a bit hittable, and even when he picked up three wickets in his first game, it was when the batters came after him, and this is the stage of an innings where Afghanistan batters have to go after the bowling. And the advantage which Dubey will have now, compared to bowling in the middle phase, is that there is only one ball from here on; the softer ball will be hard to get away. Shahidi for Afghanistan has slowed down quite a bit here for a while, which might be something which has to change soon.

Another nice partnership between Nabi and Shahidi here. This is what Afghanistan wanted at this stage of the innings after that brilliant partnership between Shahidi and Omarzai earlier. Nabi, with all his experience, has played here. He has picked his bowler in Nitish and tried to attack him, which is a pretty smart move. We are getting into that stage of the innings where India has to start planning for the final overs. At one point in the innings, it did not seem like we would go deep into the innings, given the way Prasidh was bowling, but Kudos to Shahidi, he has shown grit and determination and is the key to the score of Afghanistan.

Prasidh Krishna has come into the attack. He has bowled a fabulous spell in the afternoon, and after a break of about an hour, he should be fresh enough, as he looked a bit tired because of the heat at the end of that spell. Also, with a new batter in it is a pretty attacking move to bring in his strike bowler instead of looking to sneak in a few overs of either Dubey or Nitish, who have been the weaker bowlers in the afternoon so far. Also, we will be having only one ball after 34 overs, so the ball will get older, and it is pretty hot here; we might behave pretty differently, and hitting won't be that easy.

Prince Yadav has picked up the wicket of Omarzai, who has gone past his half-century. Before getting into the wicket, it was a fabulous innings. He walked in when Krishna was breathing fire with the ball and negotiated the hard passage well to get to a half-century. Would Afghanistan want him to bat for a bit longer? Definitely yes, but they will be happy that he has brought them into a decent position. Now for the wicket, it was a short delivery which Omarzai could have played on the ground given how many overs remain, but he opted to go aerial, and Prasidh took a lovely catch at square-leg, and we take drinks.

India does not have a wrist-spinner today. Not having a wrist-spinner in white-ball format these days is always a risk as they have been the key contributors for teams in picking wickets through these middle overs, and finger-spinners have been more match-up dependent on the impact they create ot they need a lot more from the surface to survive. This wicket has nothing for both Sundar and Dubey, and as far as the match-up goes, they have a left-hander and a right-hander to bowl to. But they have been a bit defensive. Dubey, especially, can be a bit more attacking to Omarzai, who is a right-hander and Sundar vice-versa to Shahidi.

It is an important game for Harsh Dubey. He is applying for the role of Ravindra Jadeja/ Axar Patel, who are quite superb through the middle overs. The key part of the job lies in knowing when to attack and when to try to keep the lid on the scoring rate. At this point in the innings, the line at which Dubey is operating, bowling on the legs, it does seem like he is happy to give singles away and not look for those attacking deliveries, which is a practical option given that the partnership is gone past fifty and there is not a lot for spinners to work with. But the important part will be for him not to go at 6s and 7s, which will defeat the purpose of having him.

We have reached the first water break of the game here, and it has been a passage that has belonged to India. Prasidh Krishna has been quite superb with his lines and lengths and has managed to pick up four wickets. However, since Krishna has been taken out of the attack, Afghanistan has managed to rebuild, of sorts. Shahidi and Omarzai have been quite tidy in the middle. The Indian seamers have targeted Shahidi with the bumper, although he got a few hits on the head, he managed to survive. Meanwhile, Omarzai has taken the attack to the Indian seamers.

Prince Yadav has come into the attack. He did take the new ball in the game against Lucknow, and today he is coming in as the first change. The work has been done for him with the new ball. It is important that he bowls that nagging length and continues to frustrate the batters, as the moment that would have been there would have vanished by now. It will be interesting to see when Gill will introduce Nitish Kumar Reddy. Seems like Prasidh is tired and it might be an opportunity to give him a few overs and see if the batters can be taken likely. Well, as we update it is Brar who replaces Prasidh at this point.

Prasidh Krishna has picked up the wicket of Rahmat Shah. That delivery was there to leave or play with a vertical bat for some odd reason. Shah decided to play a flick shot of sorts for a delivery which was going over the stumps and turned the bat, and the edge went to Rohit Sharma. As we update, Zadran has fallen here. It was a fuller delivery and was there to drive, but he edged it as he could not reach the pitch of the ball and the ball carried to Rohit yet again. The tall fast bowler is running through the Afghan batting line-up here. Winning the toss and opting to bat first, Afghanistan's application is a pretty poor application.

Shubman Gill has given his fast bowlers two slips and a gully. It is a pretty attacking field from Gill. He realised there is a bit of a steep bounce and the seam moment, and has given the catchers. Afghanistan batters too have been trying to poke that ball on the fourth stump channel, which will need extra precision to leave the ball. Historically, Afghanistan batters have had a tough time on wickets like this, and the batter who could put pressure back on the bowlers in Gurbaz to try and make the bowlers do something different from stock length is gone. The way things are going, India might pick another one in a couple of overs.

This is a pretty good wicket; it does seem like a black soil wicket, and there is a nice grass covering on it. The surface will play pretty well throughout the 100 overs, and if there is any dew in the second innings, it will help the batters further. Given India's depth in batting, Afghanistan should be aiming to get at least 350-370 from here on.

Looks like a very good wicket. Would've batted first as well. Was pretty hot in the last match and it's going to be no different here. It's about being consistent in the areas we're looking at. We'll be chasing in this match, and chasing big scores consistently and comfortably is one area where we haven't quite ticked the box yet. That's what we'll be looking at today. Three changes. Prasidh, Harsh and Nitish Reddy are back.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Darwish Rasooli, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, AM Ghazanfar, Zia Ur Rahman Sharifi, Fareed Ahmad Malik

Afghanistan wins toss and opts to bat first vs India in Chennai

“I think with Ishan, the only concern was ever could he transform himself from a T20 specialist into a 50-over player, potentially even a red-ball player. I think he showed that the other night. By nature, he's very aggressive and we still feel there's space for that in this team. You do have some solid batters around him if you include them in the team. With Shubman and Virat, you have two of the more classical guys who are going to bat through the innings. He is a very versatile player. He can bat on top of the order, he can bat in the middle and obviously the fact that he's a top gloveman as well. I think he ticks a lot of boxes and so on. Like I said, purely for versatility is something you want in your squad,” the former Dutch captain said.

"If you look at squad composition, he's someone who obviously stands out with how he's performed under pressure in the T20 World Cup and how he's stepped into this team now and played a crucial knock the other night. I think he ticks a lot of boxes and someone, like I said, purely for the versatility, someone you want in your squad all day long."

Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar, Harsh Dubey, Harshit Rana, Gurnoor Brar, Prince Yadav.