NEW DELHI: Prasidh Krishna and Rohit Sharma wrote a rare piece of ODI history as India got off to a dream start against Afghanistan in the third and final ODI at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday.After Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss and elected to bat, Prasidh struck on the first ball of the innings. The right-armer dismissed the in-form opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz for 5 and Rohit Sharma took a sharp catch at first slip.Gurbaz nudged the delivery outside off-stump and edged it straight to Rohit, giving India an early breakthrough.Prasidh continued to torment the Afghan batsmen with his disciplined line and length. In the sixth over he struck again, this time removing Rahmat Shah for 5. Once again Rohit was the catcher.Rahmat tried a backward leg delivery but managed only a front edge, which Rohit hit safely.The Prasidh-Rohit combination completed the hat-trick of caught balls in the eighth over. Ibrahim Zadran became the third victim when he tried to drive away from his body and pulled the ball to first slip, where Rohit completed his third catch of the innings.All three wickets fell in remarkably similar fashion, with Prasidh finding the outside edge and Rohit doing the rest at slip.The feat also created a unique record in Indian ODI history.For the first time in 1,078 ODI matches in India, the same combination of bowlers and fielders took the first three wickets in an innings. While there have been previous instances of a fielder taking the ball three times from the same bowler in ODIs for India, none have come for three consecutive wickets, let alone the first three dismissals of an innings.
Three catches by a fielder off a bowler in ODIs for India
- VVS Laxman off Irfan Pathan v Zimbabwe, Perth, 2004
- Shikhar Dhawan with Jasprit Bumrah vs Bangladesh, Dubai, 2018.
- Rohit Sharma off Prasidh Krishna vs Afghanistan, Chennai, 2026
India lead the three-match ODI series 2-0.
