Third Battle of Panipat
The Durrani Afghan forces and their allies finally won and defeated the Marathas. The place of battle field is disputed by historians, but most of them are in favour of horiana in Punjab regions not far away from Delhi. The Marathas dug a trench which was three kilometres long and four hundred metres wide. Ahmad Shah Durrani showed his shrewdness by grounding pretended  tents behind which there was a four kilometres long  curtain. Behind the banner of curtain Ahmad Shah Durrani dug four kilometres long and twenty feet wide cannals. By extracting muds from the channel  five feet high, twenty feet wide and four kilometres long road was made behind which Afgan riflemen can take safer position to fire acutely targeting advancing Maratha soldiers. Furthermore, Ahmad Shah Durrani laid his short range movable cannons on the backs of camels positioned behind the road from which cannon fire could be made targeting the advancing Maratha soldiers over the heads of his own forces. There were four feeder roads one kilometre  away from each other on which Afgan horsemen could come down to battle field and if needed could retreat behind the shadow of five feet high covering road. These four feeder roads were short, narrow and sloping to battle field. Ahmad Shah Abdali tried to bait Maratha troops to advance and Marathas stepped into this trap. Afgans riflemen and short range cannons fired flawlessly onto the Marathas Army and Marathas'began to fall down one after another. In this final stage of battle Ahmad Shah Abdali's left flank and right flank came down to battle field surrounding Maratha forces on three sides. In this conjuncture  of the battle, Holker left the battle field realizing the battle was lost and Marathas almost lost their ground in the battle  leaving the chief Sadashivrorao Bhaou encircled by his  bodyguards in the midst of the battle field. Front troops of Ahmad Shah did not further advance fearing cannon fire of the Marathas'. Under the cover of these French made cannon 15,000 Maratha forces managed to flee leaving their chief vulnerable.