Four years ago, India’s IT capital Bangalore witnessed one of the most overwrought games in the history of Indian cricket. It was a crucial group stage match of the 2016 T20 World Cup, where the hosts were facing Bangladesh at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
After being put in to bat, India made a below-par score of 146-7. Suresh Raina (30), Virat Kohli (24) and Shikhar Dhawan (23) were the major run-scorers for the Men in Blue.
In reply, the Tigers got off to an excellent start thanks to Tamim Iqbal’s knock of 35 from 32 balls. Then, Sabbir Rahman (26) and Shakib Al Hasan (22) got Bangladesh closer to the victory.
Ravichandran Ashwin (2/20), Ravindra Jadeja (2/22), Jasprit Bumrah (0/32) and Ashish Nehra (1/29) had completed their full quota of overs, and captain MS Dhoni handed the responsibility to bowl the final over to all-rounder Hardik Pandya. Bangladesh needed 11 runs off the last six balls.
Mahmudullah started the proceedings and took a single off the first ball, then Mushfiqur Rahim hit consecutive fours. However, he began to celebrate the win prematurely, which eventually cost Bangladesh. Rahim mistimed the next ball and was caught at deep midwicket. Then Mahmudullah tried to slog the following delivery, but he also failed to connect and got out.
With 2 runs required from 1 ball, Shuvagata Hom and Mustafizur Rahman tried to run a single for a tie, but Dhoni was quicker in the running up to break the stumps and Bangladesh were knocked out of the tournament.
Pandya bowled a short ball outside off-stump, which Shuvagata missed. Dhoni, who had removed his right glove before the final delivery in order to throw accurately, collected the ball and made a sprint towards the stumps instead of going for a direct-hit.
It was undoubtedly one of the most memorable victories for Indian cricket fans.
Here’s the video of the last ball as shared by ICC on Monday:
#OnThisDay in 2016, MS Dhoni broke thousands of Bangladeshi hearts. pic.twitter.com/fZbnO3mAWG
— ICC (@ICC) March 23, 2020
