India 224 for 1 (Jaiswal 110*, Rohit 79, Nabi 1-47) beat Afghanistan 218 (Shahidi 102, Omarzai 50, Prasidh 5-23) by nine wickets

Jaiswal brought up his second ODI century with a six and led the hosts home while keeping his strike rate above 100 throughout. Although still on the fringes of the 50-over team, he became the first batter to score two hundreds for India in his first six men’s ODI innings. Shikhar Dhawan had two in his first seven innings.

The major strides in the game was made in the first innings after the visitors won the toss and batted first in Chennai. There was ample swing and extra bounce at the start. Ball beat bat often and Rahmanullah Gurbaz tried to drive Prasidh on the up and edged it to Rohit. Rahmat Shah tried to flick it leg side and got a leading edge. Ibrahim Zadran fell in similar fashion to Gurbaz. All catches were taken by Rohit at first slip.

Afghanistan were getting their runs when the bowlers went too straight or went for the bouncer. But Prasidh didn’t give anything away. His first sell read 5-2-6-4. Darwish Rasooli tried to hit him off his spot but his skied drive was well taken by Shreyas Iyer running back from cover.

India’s allrounder-heavy line-up saw Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar and Harsh Dubey bowl 21 overs between themselves. They went for 103 runs and took a wicket.

Reddy and Dubey’s spin were introduced after 15 overs. Regular boundaries upped the run rate and it continued as Washington was introduced. Dubey was taken off once Shahidi took him down for a four and a six. Shahidi and Omarzai brought up their fifties two overs apart and the hundred stand in between.

The return of Prince’s pace had Omarzai hook a bouncer straight to deep fine leg. He made way for a 57-run stand between Shahidi and Mohammad Nabi. Shahidi overcame his bouncer problem. He had picked up five boundaries with pulls and ramps by the 36th over. In between though, he picked up his second warning for running on the pitch.

Afghanistan’s second spree of wickets started with Nabi camping for the bouncer and being bowled by Gurnoor Brar. Fortunes changed dramatically when Shahidi ran on the danger area again at the end of the 40th over. It cost him five runs and the strike. Afghanistan lost three wickets in the next seven balls.

Rashid Khan first holed out to deep cover off Dubey’s bowling looking for a big hit. The over ended with AM Ghazanfar run out as Shahidi looked to keep strike. More puzzling was Fareed Ahmad’s run out next ball. Shahidi, looking to turn strike, went for a non-existent single first ball of the over and allowed Gill to effect his second run out in two balls.

Shahidi’s hundred was in jeopardy as Afghanistan slipped from 203 for 6 to 206 for 9. Ziaur Rahman saw off five balls and Shahidi faced 11 of the next 12 balls to bring up a 128-ball hundred. He was out to the bouncer, pulling Prasidh to deep midwicket and ending the innings with 28 balls to spare.

India started their innings at 5 for no loss as Shahidi ran on the danger area of the pitch three times and conceded a five-run penalty. They ended the first over, bowled by Omarzai, with 26 on the board with three fours, two no-balls and a wide.

Rohit had a couple of nervy moments. In the third over, he top-edged a pull off Fareed which went behind the wicket, Gurbaz couldn’t get to the ball in time and ended up kicking it over the boundary. Then in the sixth over, with Rohit on ten at the time, he cut Ziaur to deep third. Fareed was blinded by the lights and looked to save his face, letting go of what would have been a dolly.

That apart, Rohit and Jaiswal were in full flow. They hit 11 fours and two sixes in an 81-run powerplay. Jaiswal, who has gotten out playing the cut, did edge one through slip, but was in control of many others as he raked in runs behind point. He reached fifty in the 12th over while Rohit reached his in the 16th.

The difference between the two batters was wiped off when Rohit took on Rashid. He hit three fours and a pulled six as India coasted past 150 in the 21st over. Nabi presented a long hop not long after, but Rohit’s pull found deep midwicket this time.

Shreyas, promoted to No. 3, swung so hard that he threw his bat in the 24th over. Jaiswal nearly holed out to deep cover in the 26th over.

The rush to the finish started with Jaiswal and Shreyas taking 19 off Fareed. Jaiswal began the final over of the game with the six that brought up his century and finished it off with a six and a four. India won by nine wickets and 128 balls to spare.