The ICC World T20 2016 was held in India and the home team was favorites to win the whole tournament. However, they started badly, by losing the opening match to New Zealand put them in the precarious position of winning the remaining group matches.
India did that by winning against archrivals Pakistan in Kolkata and then met Bangladesh in Bengaluru. The match happened on this day, March 23 in 2016. However, the Indian team struggled to get going while batting first and Suresh Raina’s top-score of 30 in 23 balls led India to a measly 146/7 in 20 overs.
Bangladesh knew the total was a small one in-ground with small boundaries like the Chinnaswamy Stadium and they had the firepower in batting to take care of the 147-run target. Tamim Iqbal (35) stitched crucial partnerships with Sabbir Rahman (26) and Shakib Al Hasan (22) after R Ashwin had given India a crucial breakthrough.
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Ashwin and Jadeja picked two wickets each, while Nehra and Raina picked one each. It all came down to the last over, where Bangladesh needed 11 runs and had Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim on the crease. The over was bowled by Hardik Pandya and Bangladeshi fans went wild after Rahim hit Pandya for two boundaries off the first two balls.
Ecstasy was written all over the faces of the two Bangladesh batsmen, and Rahim even did a premature celebratory dance after hitting the second boundary. With 2 required off 3 balls, Bangladesh then committed cricketing hara-kiri.
Rahim and Mahmudullah both got out trying to hit big sixes over mid-wicket. Bangladesh needed 2 runs to win off the last ball and one run to force a super over.
Dhoni, Pandya, Yuvraj, and Nehra got into a long discussion over what to ball and Dhoni then took off his glove from the right hand, ready to pounce on the ball and throw it as quickly as possible.
Shuvagata Hom failed to connect to a length ball outside off stump and Dhoni collected the ball and sprinted towards the stumps and broke it, beating Mustafizur Rahman to the crease and earned India a close one-run win.
This kept India’s hopes alive in the tournament despite a close call and credit went to Pandya, for bowling as per plans set by the master of strategies, one and only, MS Dhoni.
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