Prasidh Krishna and Rohit Sharma (BCCI Photo)

NEW DELHI: Prasidh Krishna and Rohit Sharma scripted a rare piece of ODI history as India made 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 chose to bat, Prasidh struck with the very first ball of the innings. The right-arm pacer dismissed in-form opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz for 5, with Rohit Sharma taking a sharp catch at first slip.Gurbaz pushed at a delivery outside off stump and edged it straight to Rohit, giving India an early breakthrough.Prasidh continued to trouble the Afghan batters 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 to work a back-of-a-length delivery towards the leg side but only managed a leading edge, which was safely pouched by Rohit.The Prasidh-Rohit combination completed a hat-trick of catches in the eighth over. Ibrahim Zadran became the third victim when he attempted to drive away from his body and edged 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 in the slips.The feat also created a unique record in India’s ODI history.For the first time in India’s 1,078 ODI matches, the same bowler-fielder combination accounted for the first three wickets of an innings. While there have been previous instances of a fielder taking three catches off the same bowler in an ODI for India, none had come for three consecutive wickets, let alone the first three dismissals of the innings.

Three catches by a fielder off a bowler in ODIs for India

India are leading the three-match ODI series 2-0.