Nidahas Tri-Series 2018: Mahela Jayawardene bets on India in the final

India and Bangladesh will play each other in Nidahas Trophy 2018 final.

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India and Bangladesh are set to meet each other in the Nidahas Trophy 2018 final on Sunday.

The men in blue are said to be the favorites to lift the title. Former Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene thinks Rohit Sharma led India has a better pace attack than Bangladesh and that gives them an upper hand in the final.

India had faced a defeat in the opening encounter of the tri-series at the hands of Sri Lanka. But since then they have played with dominance and won all three matches back-to-back.

In his column for Times of India, Jayawardene wrote, “Bangladesh have nothing to lose and everything to gain against India. They can enjoy being the underdogs after two round-robin stage defeats and attack India without the pressure of expectation.

“India may be missing some of their top senior players, but they have already shown that they have great depth of talent right now in all departments.”

“They have a clear advantage in terms of their pace bowling against Bangladesh, but in terms of batting things are more evenly balanced. Bangladesh have the experience in their top order to do some damage. At the end of the day, as is so often the case with T20 cricket, it will probably come down to who handles the pressure the best and is able to best navigate themselves through the key moments in the game.”

Speaking on the unseemly incident during Bangladesh and Sri Lanka match, Jayawardene said calling off the game by Bangladeshi players wasn't a good sight for young fans. 

“The final-over fracas should certainly have been handled better. From a neutral perspective, it was definitely a no-ball and the umpires made a mistake. They then made matters worse by not taking charge of the situation and diffusing the tension with effective communication,” he wrote. 

“Having said that, the reactions of the players, including the threats by Bangladesh to leave the field of play, are not the kind of thing you want young cricket fans to see. Emotions were understandably running high, but players have a larger responsibility to the game,” added Jayawardene, who scored 12,650 ODI and 11,814 Test runs.

He also mentioned that host nation—Sri Lanka, did not deserve to be in the final after three straight losses. 

“The elimination of hosts Sri Lanka from this Nidahas Trophy has obviously caused a lot of local disappointment. However, sadly, the truth is that Sri Lanka don’t deserve to be in the final after three straight defeats. India have been extremely impressive after their wobbly start and Bangladesh have battled really hard and shown their experience at critical times,” wrote Jayawardene. 

 
 

By Sihyeu Singh - 18 Mar, 2018

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