India beat Afghanistan by 127 runs, sweep third T20 series 3-0

The third and final T20 International between India and Afghanistan turned out to be a one-sided contest. India put up a dominant show at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, beating Afghanistan by a massive margin of 127 runs. With this win, India claimed the three-match T20 series 3-0 and took complete control of the trophy.

The foundation for this big win was laid by star opener Abhishek Sharma's historic century. Batting at the top of the order, Abhishek played explosive shots and reached his century in just 30 balls. He scored 108 runs off 34 balls. Powered by Abhishek's century and Sanju Samson's 50, India put up a mountain of a score at 221 runs. By the end of the first innings, the Indian team had virtually sealed the match.

On the back of Abhishek Sharma's century, India had set Afghanistan a target of 222 runs. But the Afghanistan side, chasing this big target, collapsed like a house of cards. The team looked under pressure from the start, and Indian bowlers, hitting the right line and length, gave the Afghan batters no room to play their shots. Wickets fell at regular intervals and the batting fell apart completely. Afghanistan were bowled out for just 94 runs in 14 overs. The team could not even reach the 100-run mark and lost the match by 127 runs.

Ravi Bishnoi was the star with the ball. Bishnoi took three crucial wickets in a single over to break Afghanistan's back, and picked up another wicket in the very next over to virtually seal India's win. No Afghanistan player could put up a good performance. Though this was a friendship series, all three matches went in India's favour, and completely one-sidedly at that.

An interesting aspect was that both teams played only 14 overs each in all three matches. In the first two matches, Afghanistan had set targets of 156 and 160 runs respectively in 14 overs, which India chased down. In the third match, the Indian bowlers bowled out the entire Afghanistan side within 14 overs itself.