Hard to believe, but Rohit Sharma missed Dinesh Karthik's match-winning six against Bangladesh last night.
Sounds odd, right? The India skipper revealed he went inside the changing room to pad-up in need of a super over, with India needing 5 off the last ball in Nidahas Trophy 2018 final.
Karthik's innings turned out to be the chasm between Bangladesh and win. He scored 29* off 8 balls and that was enough to haunt the neighbors for long time.
“I had walked back in the dressing room to wear my pads,” Rohit said in the press conference after India beat Bangladesh by 4 wickets.
“Very happy to see Dinesh doing what he did, he didn’t get much game time until now, but he showed his power. We held him back because of his finishing ability and his experience. And it paid off. I always had a lot of faith in our batting group and we were confident after keeping them to a par score,” Rohit, who scored a 56 off 42 balls in the final, said.
The Sri Lankan crowd supported team India in the final after Bangladesh defeated the hosts to make it into the finals. Rohit thanked the passionate Lankan and Indians fans for the love.
“Brilliant game, brilliant for the crowd who have come out in numbers. The support we got here from this crowd was brilliant, it would be a bit different if we were playing Sri Lanka but I would like to thank them for their show tonight,” he said.
Rohit was leading a young Indian side. It wasn't easy considering the other two participants had a full strength team, but the youngster did well to lift the trophy. “Great tournament for us. Young lads. A lot of learning. We always knew they had the talent, but it was about executing and this tournament will give them a lot of confidence. Everybody who played, they showed lots of character. These games are not easy and these guys have not played a lot for the national team. And this performance will give them a lot of confidence.”
Tamil Nadu cricketer Washington Sundar was chosen as the Man of the Series. He had picked 8 wickets in the series, at an economy rate under 6 runs per over.
Rohit said that it was easy to lead this group of players and that they executed the plans perfectly. “It was quite easy to lead them. A lot of work has been done of the field in terms of strategy so it was very easy for me to remind them what we spoke of in our meeting and I thought they just executed them perfectly, in the Powerplay, middle overs and the death. Some of them went for runs, but they will learn from it and today was a real platform to show what we could do.”
