Abhishek's record century delivers India's clean sweep of Afghanistan
He hit a 30-ball century in India's 221 before Afghanistan collapsed to 94 all out
He hit a 30-ball century in India's 221 before Afghanistan collapsed to 94 all out
Scorer: M Venkat Raghav | Commentator: Alagappan Muthu
That's it from us at Cricinfo commentary. Thank you for your company. Good night.
India captain Shreyas Iyer: We are respecful of the fact that they've come to India and are hosting the series. Commendable performance from them as well. Honestly speaking, I knew we were going to bat today. I had a brief conversation with Ibrahim and he wanted to bowl as well. I had this vision we were going to bat. Just to cream those runs, to get 220 on the board was unbelievable.
Afghanistan captain Ibrahim Zadran: Definitely disappointed. We improved a little bit in the powerplay. Totally happy with the intent. In today's game, we have given back to back wickets. We have thought about that, how to take the intent forward. Yes we will struggle little bit in one or two series but with time we will improve. If we don't have intent, it is really hard to beat international teams. This is the first series for us in T20 after the World Cup. We need to play more games, more series especially against biggest teams. That's how we can improve. Yes, we play against Zimbabwe and Ireland. If we want to improve our level though, we need to play against the biggest teams. Axar has done it in the past, he's doing it now, he knows when the critical situation arrives and he is the man to deliver [bowling in the powerplay]. He thinks a lot about his game.
Abhishek Sharma is the player of the match for his 108 off 34 balls and the player of the series as well: I've told in the first interview as well. We've been doing this last two years. One or two bad series won't define us as a batting department. We wanted to dominate throughout the whole year before the world cup no matter who the opposition is. I feel as a batter, sometimes you have up and downs. The most important thing is as a team we have to be together and support each other. That's how these innings happen. I feel it's all dependent on my process before every series. It's very particular for me, against who I play and their bowlers. How I'm going to utilise the powerplay. Who's going to bowl the powerplay, the 7th over, the 8th over. And the way I play, it's very important for the captain and the coach to be on your side. You have to get surety. I feel this is because of them as well. I feel I don't want to restrict any area. It's just watch the ball and play according to it. It's very simple from day one. I just want to express myself. Just see the ball and hit the ball. You can't be sure you'll be doing well all the time but the culture we've developed in our team is to dominate and it's been going well so far.
Warne or Murali or Ashwin or Jadeja? It's a fun KYC today.
Stats - Abhishek's 30-ball hundred and India's record-breaking powerplay.
All this talk of 300 totals in T20s started somewhere around the time Abhishek Sharma started doing impossible things for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL. There was a real chance he was going to help his country reach that mark today. Afghanistan prevented that and that might be the only consolation they will be taking back home from this "home" series. They've been outplayed otherwise. This was a tough series for Ibrahim Zadran as captain. Rashid was special though. Ahmadzai and Farooqi's yorkers were good (though India could've unsettled him more if they'd tried to play some ramps and scoops).
Other ticks for India were Jasprit Bumrah coming back from injury and Nitish Kumar Reddy following an upward curve as a fast bowler. A significant downside though is the fitness issues for Varun Chakravarthy whose comeback lasted one match before he got injured again.
Abhinav: "A spinner getting injured so frequently is concerning, something's not right!"
Mustafa Moudi : "Fun Fact: All the 4 T20I Series under Shreyas as a Captain have resulted in Whitewashes. First 2 in losing causes while the Next 2 in winning cause !"
Java : "Mandatory "Abhishek Sharma won by 14 runs" comment "
Shashank: "India comfortably won the series back-to-back, but this Indian team, led by Iyer and Gauti, has yet to face strong teams. That will be the real test. What say?" They faced England very recently and lost.
Abdollah Ahmadzai c Patel b Ravi Bishnoi 6 (11m 8b 1x4 0x6) SR: 75
SUSANTA: "Now the biggest question is "Can Afganistan cross Abhishek's score?""
Abhishek Sharma's new-gen batting, by stripping the craft down to its bare essentials, has given him the best odds to succeed
He hit a 30-ball century in India's 221 before Afghanistan collapsed to 94 all out
Stats highlights from Abhishek's record-breaking ton against Afghanistan in Delhi
The India opener rushed to his century in just 30 balls, bettering Rohit Sharma's longstanding India record by five balls
Ibrahim Zadran made two changes bringing in Abdollah Ahmadzai and handing a debut to Noor ul Rahman