Nidahas Tri-series 2018: Final – Dinesh Karthik hits a last ball six to win the trophy for India

Rohit Sharma made a sublime fifty.

Rohit Sharma hit a brilliant fifty | AP

India and Bangladesh clashed in the finals of the 2018 Nidahas Trophy at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. India had twice defeated Bangladesh previously in the league stages, but this was a different occasion all together.

India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to field first. India brought in Jaydev Unadkat in place of Mohd Siraj, who had an expensive outing in the only match he got to play.

Tamim Iqbal and Liton Das decided to take on the Indian bowlers up front, but after a few hits, Sundar had Liton caught by Raina for 11 and Shardul Thakur probably took the catch of the tournament to dismiss Tamim off Chahal for 15.

Chahal removed Soumya Sarkar (1) in the same over as Tamim and then removed Mushfiqur Rahim (9) to reduce Bangladesh to 68/4.

However Sabbir Rahman hit 77 off 50 balls with 7 fours and 4 sixes to take Bangladesh towards a fighting total and then Mehedi Hasan hit 19 with 2 fours and 1 six in the last over bowled by Shardul Thakur to take Bangladesh to 166/8 in the final.

Yuzvendra Chahal picked 3/18 and Washington Sundar picked 2/20 off their four overs. However, Shardul Thakur (45 runs in 4 overs) and Vijay Shankar (48 runs in 4 overs) undid some of the good work done by spinners.

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan opened for India. Shakib removed Dhawan for 10 and Raina capped off a relatively lukewarm tournament with a three ball duck, caught behind by Mushfiqur off Rubel.

Rohit Sharma continued murdering the Bangladeshi bowlers, as Shakib decided to keep bowling spinners at him. KL Rahul finally got a chance to bat and started off promisingly. But he fell for 24 off 14 balls. Bangladesh also missed a number of run out chances at crucial moments.

Manish Pandey struggled for timing during his 28 of 27 balls and Vijay Shankar was made to look out of sorts by Mustafizur, who bowled four dot balls to him in the 18th over. But cometh the need, cometh the man and Dinesh Karthik destroyed Rubel Hossain in the 19th over, when India needed 34 runs in 12 balls.

Rubel was hit for two sixes and two fours by Dinesh Karthik and took him for a total of 22 runs in the over to bring down the required total to 12 runs off six balls, which were bowled by Soumya Sarkar.

It all came down to Dinesh Karthik, who had to score 5 runs off the last ball and smoked Soumya Sarkar for a huge six. He remained not out on 29 off 8 balls with 2 sixes and 2 fours.

India won the match by 4 wickets, all thanks to Dinesh Karthik.

BRIEF SCORES:

BAN 166/8 (S RAHMAN 77; Y CHAHAL 3/18) lost to IND 168/6 (R SHARMA 56; D KARTHIK 29*) by 4 wkts
INDIA won the Nidahas Tri-series 2018.

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 18 Mar, 2018

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