On this day, two years ago, Dinesh Karthik played a fabulous inning as India defeated Bangladesh in the Nidahas Trophy final in Colombo.
The Bangladesh team played excellent cricket in the tournament and secured the place in the Tri-Series final. The ‘Tigers’ crushed Sri Lanka twice, including chasing down a mammoth total of 215 in the third T20I.
However, they lost both the matches against India in the group stage and were ready to settle the scores in the grand finale.
In the summit clash, Bangladesh were asked to bat first, and they posted 166 on the board, thanks to Sabbir Rahman, who smashed a vital 77 from just 50 balls. For the ‘Men in Blue’ Yuzvendra Chahal was the pick of the bowlers as the leggie grabbed three wickets for only 18 runs in four overs.
In reply, India had a poor start as they lost two wickets early for 32 in the form of Shikhar Dhawan (10) and Suresh Raina (0). However, then skipper Rohit Sharma (56) and middle-order batsman KL Rahul (24) joined hands to take the team out of trouble.
The pair of Rohit and Rahul added a vital 51-run stand before Rubel Hossain sent the Karnataka batsman back to the dugout. Meanwhile, Rohit reached his fifty and was looking settled to build another partnership with Manish Pandey (28). However, Nazmul Islam got the better of the Indian captain and got him for 56.
Soon Pandey too got out, and India were reduced to 133-5 after 18 overs. They still needed 34 in two overs, and Bangladesh were very much closer to claim the victory, but Dinesh Karthik, who had just come to take the strike, brought a turnaround along with him.
Rubel, who had a good match, took the responsibility of bowling the second last over, but he had no idea what Karthik had planned for him. The Tamil Nadu batsman greeted the Bangladeshi bowler with a six over long-on followed by a four in deep mid-wicket and another six at the square-leg region.
Karthik collected 16 runs off the first three deliveries and six in the rest to take 22 runs out of Rubel’s over. India then needed just 12 from the last over, and Bangladeshi skipper handed over the ball to part-timer Saumya Sarkar.
Here’s the video of the second last over:
It was the turn of Vijay Shankar, who had to take the strike, on the other end, as his partner was in the momentum to finish the game. But Shankar missed the first delivery as it drifted down to the leg stump, fortunately for India, it was called wide by the umpire.
In the next ball, Shankar went for the glory shot but missed the ball completely, and the pressure was back on India. Then Karthik had a word with the newcomer, and Shankar tapped the next delivery on the covers to bring Karthik back into the strike.
However, Karthik couldn’t score a boundary and took a single on the third ball. Then Shankar guided the full outside off delivery bowled by Sarkar towards third man region for four, and India now needed five from two.
In the next ball, Shankar tried to hit it over long-off, but due to poor timing, he ended up being dismissed and left his team to get five from 1. The only positive thing that happened for India was that due to the crossover, red-hot Karthik was back on strike.
On the last delivery, Sarkar bowled a juicy half-volley outside off which was hammered by Karthik to the extra cover region for a flat-six and bingo, India sealed a dramatic victory.
Karthik remained unbeaten on 29 off eight deliveries that also earned him the man of the match award.
Here’s the video of the last over:
