India and Bangladesh played a thrilling final match of the 2018 Asia Cup, which went down right to the wire. It was the second time Bangladesh faced India in the finals of a tournament this year after the Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka.
Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bowl first and the five players who missed out the Afghanistan encounter were back. Bangladesh innovated with their openers as Mehidy Hasan and Liton Das came out to start the innings and threw caution to the wind.
Liton, in particular, slammed the Indian bowlers to all parts of the ground, as Mehidy anchored one end making 32 in 59 balls. The duo added 120 runs in just 20 odd overs before Mehidy was dismissed by Kedar Jadhav.
But Liton Das continued well to convert his first fifty in ODI cricket into a maiden century in 87 balls with 11 fours and 2 sixes. He finally fell for 121 off 117 balls as Bangladesh started to collapse in between. Imrul Kayes, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohd Mithun, and Mahmudullah all fell for single-digit scores.
Soumya Sarkar kept prodding away as Kuldeep Yadav picked 3/45 and Jadhav picked the important wicket of Mushfiqur Rahim as well. Bangladesh ended up making 222 in 49th over from being 120/0 at one stage.
Everyone thought that the Indian openers will make the life easy for their team in the chase, but lost Dhawan for 15 and Rayudu for 2. Rohit made a good looking 48 with 3 sixes and 3 fours. A lull period then came in the chase, when both Karthik and Dhoni started the rebuilding process from 83/3 for the team.
Karthik got out for 37 and MS Dhoni went for 36 off 67 balls and with Kedar Jadhav injuring his hamstring and retiring hurt, the task of winning the game fell on Ravindra Jadeja (23) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (21), who took the team within safety with a 45-run partnership.
Kedar Jadhav (23*) came back to give the finishing touches despite hobbling on one leg. Bangladesh fought bravely till the end thanks to some cunning captaincy from Mashrafe and some tight bowling by Rubel Hossain.
He and Kuldeep Yadav finally made the required runs in the last over and India became the Asian Champions for the seventh time.
BRIEF SCORES:
BAN 222 (L DAS 121; K YADAV 3/45) lost to IND 223/7 (R SHARMA 48; R HOSSAIN 2/26) by 3 wickets
