Colombo, March 18 (PTI): Dinesh Karthik did a Javed Miandad with a last-ball six as India pulled off an incredible chase beating Bangladesh by four wickets in the Nidhas T20 Tri-series final, here tonight.
Needing five off the final delivery, Karthik smashed Soumya Sarkar over extra-cover as a second-string Indian side held its nerve in a tense situation to chase down a target of 167 in 20 overs. It would count as one of India’s famous last ball sixes — something that Pakistani legend did against India 32 years back in Sharjah.
Karthik’s gem of a cameo got him 29 off 8 balls with two boundaries and three sixes — the last of them which will be forever be etched in the memory.
Skipper Rohit Sharma’s (56 off 42 balls) dismissal set India’s inexperienced middle-order in panic mode and Vijay Shankar’s four dot balls off the 18th over by Mustafizur Rahaman made it very difficult for India.
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.
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.
Shikhar Dhawan (10) and Suresh Raina (0) were out in quick succession but the Indian captain was in his element as Bangladesh’s ploy of using spinners in the Powerplay didn’t prove to be as effective as India.
Earlier, Indian pacers undid the hardwork of their spinners as Bangladesh scored a competitive 166 for eight, riding on Sabbir’s 50-ball 77 after batting first.
Off-spinner Washington Sundar (1/20 in 4 overs) and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (3/18 in 4 overs) were brilliant in the Powerplay but the duo of Vijay Shankar (0/48 in 4 overs) and Shardul Thakur (0/45 in 4 overs) leaked 93 runs between them on a good batting surface. Jaydev Unadkat (2/33) did come back well in his final over but Sabbir cleverly waited for the spinners to finish their quota as he launched a furious assault on the pacers during the back-10.
Bangladesh openers Tamim Iqbal (15) and Litton Das (11) started off in a whirlwind fashion but Washington forced the latter to play a slog sweep and the ball ballooned for Raina to complete a lovely catch. Chahal got his second wicket when an out-of-form Soumya Sarkar (1) tried to slog sweep a fuller delivery from Chahal with Shikhar Dhawan taking a simple catch at square-leg.
In Mahmudullah Riyadh (21), he found a steady ally and added 36 runs before a miscommunication saw the vice-captain getting run-out by Vijay Shankar.
Shankar then had a hand in getting rival captain Shakib Al Hasan run-out with a direct throw from cover region. But Sabbir’s big-hitting prowess helped them post a challenging total.
