“Practice helps you hit the auto mode,” Dinesh Karthik on his plans for the 8 balls in Nidahas Trophy final

Dinesh Karthik remained unbeaten on 29 off 8 balls with 3 sixes and 2 fours.

Perhaps the best moment of Dinesh Karthik’s international career came when he helped India win from an impossible situation against Bangladesh in the finals of the Nidahas T20 Trophy in Sri Lanka.

India needed 34 runs in the last two overs with Rohit Sharma and Manish Pandey back in the hut. Dinesh Karthik was infamously held back from captain Rohit for such a situation and when he walked out, all eyes were on him, given his experience in the format.

Karthik came through, first by hitting Rubel Hossain for 22 runs in the 19^th over, including two sixes and two fours and then hitting the final ball of the 20^th over for a six, when five runs were needed for a win.

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Talking about the said innings, Karthik revealed that he went in with a plan. “When I went in I definitely had a plan. This is where practice helps you. You go over and over something and then you hit an auto mode. Going in knowing what you need to do gives you a better chance of achieving what you want to,” he said.  

He further stated, “That is when the programming sort of happened as to where he would bowl and where I would stand and which gap. If you want to be consistent as a finisher that is how you must think and that is how I programmed the entire innings.”

Karthik also explained that practice and instincts help players like him who are dependent on clinically hitting the ball.

“We look to either get the gap or predict what the bowler is trying to do. o when you practice for long and watch enough videos and take into account factors like which side has the shorter boundary or what the bowler is going to do the chances of consistently doing what you are looking to do increases,” he said.

(Cricbuzz inputs)