(Colombo):In a nail biting climax, Dinesh Karthik won India a scintillating encounter from jaws of defeats to lift the Nidahas trophy 2018 by 4 wickets. The Cobra dance was on cards, as India needed 35 off the final 3 overs, when Mustafizur bowled arguably the over of the tournament. He conceded just 1 run and picked the wicket of Manish Pandey. Dinesh Karthik arrived at the crease to join his struggling stateman Vijay Shankar, at other end, with India still requiring 34 runs of the last 2 overs. Karthik didn’t take any time to get into the act and slammed Rubel Hossain for 22 runs in the 19th over to put India at the doorstep of victory.
With 12 required of the last over, Bangladesh was short of a specialist bowler as Soumya Sarkar came to bowl. He bowled a wide and gave an extra run, before bowling a dot ball to make it 11 of last 5 to win. Shankar managed to drive one to cover and give Karthik the strike, but then Sarkar bowled a yorker length delivery, on which Karthik could only manage a single. It was 9 runs of last 3 balls require for India as a lucky tap between backward point and short third fetched Shankar a boundary to make it 5 of last 2 balls. Shankar then decided to step on the gas and went for a glory shot that was eventually mistimed and was caught by long-off on a rebound. For India’s relief batsman crossed the half way mark and it was Karthik to face the last ball.
Sarkar, who had bowled well in that final over to keep it alive till the last ball, perhaps thought Karthik would move around the crease. He assumed it was Karthik of the old. But he wasn’t going anywhere tonight. He had done really well till then, suddenly lost the plot and served up an overpitched delivery outside off, DK crashed that lofted drive to outside the fence for a six as he overturned the results to give India a famous win over Bangladesh to lift the Nidahas trophy 2018.
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Earlier, Bangladesh set a target of 167 for victory courtesy of some brilliant batting display from Sabbir Rahman(77 of 50 balls) and Mehidy Hasan(19* of 7 balls), down the order. Yuzvendra Chahal picked three important wickets in his quota of 4 overs, giving just 18 runs.
Chasing 167, India lost in-form Shikhar Dhawan (10) and Suresh Raina (0) early in the chase. Rohit and KL Rahul then got together to stitch a 51-run partnership, looking fluent and finding boundaries at ease. Bangladesh got back into the game as they dismissed both the batsman in quick succession. Manish Pandey and Vijay Shankar struggled to get going in the middle overs that perfectly set the stage for the heroics of Dinesh Karthik in the later parts of the game.
This is India’s 8th successive win against Bangladesh and the Shakib led side is yet to beat the Indian team in T20 Internationals.
