Sri Lanka bowed out of the tournament, which commemorated 70 years of independence for the island nation, after losing to Bangladesh in a virtual semi-final on Friday. It took eight balls for Karthik to make 29 runs, and win the player of the match award, as simple as that.
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Dinesh Karthik made amends for years of frustrating wait as his blinder helped India snatch the Nidahas Trophy T20 tri-series title from the grasp of Bangladesh in Colombo Sunday night.
A partisan Sri Lankan crowd, who were upset by Bangladesh’s behaviour did the now famous “Nagin Dance” (snake dance) along with Indian supporters, leaving the Tigers distraught.
Earlier today around 6:30 PM during the toss, India won the toss and made a decision to Bowl first. He certainly needed to up his game and get back to form.
Skipper Shakib Al Hasan and substitute Nurul Hasan plead guilty and were fined 25 percent of their match fee.
He also thanked the Sri Lankan crowd for turning up in good numbers, with a lot of them supporting India.
The Bangladeshi innings, at last, appeared to get going smoothly as both the batsmen scored comfortably and at a nice pace. Jaydev Unadkat chose to ball for India. As Sarkar ran in to bowl, Karthik was relaxed in his stance, head perfectly still, bat poised to react to the line and length of the ball. Bangladesh managed to score 100 in 14 overs.
With India’s spinners on top along with a couple of insane run-outs, Bangladesh’s prospects of reaching a big total looked bleak.
Needing 12 runs off the last over from Soumya Sarkar, Shankar fell to the fifth delivery with India still five runs away. The target for India in the game was 166/8. DK’s batting strike rate was above 362 which led team India to a glorious victory.
In reply, Rohit gave India a flying start but lost Shikhar Dhawan (10) and Suresh Raina (0) in six balls to slip to 32/2 in 3.3 overs. Dhawan was caught at mid-off trying to attack Shakib Al Hasan while Raina was caught behind down the legside off Rubel Hossain and given out on review by Bangladesh. Rohit Sharma hits his good patch againRohit Sharma. However, It’s a cloudless day, and all signs point to an uninterrupted game of cricket. With Rahul too starting quickly, India got 56 in the Power Play and then the partnership quickly raced past 50.
Karthik came at the start of the19th over and hit Rubel Hossain for 22 including two sixes and two fours to bring down the equation to 12 off the final over before finishing it off in style. Even as his teammates rushed onto the ground in elation, Karthik cut a composed figure after helping India prevail in the last-ball thriller. India was at a score of 162/6 and it needed 5 more to win.
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“We knew he (Karthik) could finish off the game for us”, added the skipper.
