In a highly unusual sight at Chepauk, the scoreboard read 5/0 before Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal had even faced a single delivery in their run chase in the third ODI against Afghanistan. This head start was the result of five penalty runs being awarded to India due to a critical error by Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi during the first innings of the third ODI.
Hashmatullah Shahidi’s blunder hands India 5 free penalty runs
The incident occurred on the final ball of the 40th over. Shahidi, who had been anchoring the Afghan innings, mistakenly ran down the protected area of the pitch for the second time in the match. On-field umpires Chris Gaffaney and Rohan Pandit immediately spotted the infraction, chose to disallow the single Shahidi had just completed, and penalized the visiting side by tacking five runs onto India's upcoming total.
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This rare penalty is strictly governed by Law 41.14 of the MCC Laws of Cricket, which is designed to prevent batters from damaging the central "protected area" of the pitch (a zone measuring 5 feet by 2 feet). While a batting team is granted one official warning for an initial violation, any repeated offense prompts the umpires to strip away any runs scored on that specific delivery and award five penalty runs directly to the fielding opposition.
Hashmatullah Shahidi cracks maiden ODI ton
Defying severe dehydration, painful cramps, and the oppressive Chennai heat, Hashmatullah Shahidi produced a remarkably gritty performance to bring up his first-ever ODI century. Even as the Indian bowlers regularly tore through the batting order at the other end, the Afghanistan captain stood firm, anchoring the innings and reaching his historic milestone off 126 deliveries.
That decisive breakthrough belonged to Prasidh Krishna, who claimed Shahidi's wicket to secure his first five-wicket haul in ODI cricket. The right-arm quick was the undisputed star of the Indian bowling attack, tearing the heart out of the opposition's lineup by single-handedly dismissing every single member of Afghanistan's top five.