Nidahas Trophy
Tigers contrive to miss glory again at the death
19 Mar 2018, 08:26
Bangladesh’s cricketers have once again missed out in the final of an international tournament, this time conceding the Nidahas Trophy tri-nation T20I tournament conceding a four-wicket defeat against India in the final at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday.
India chased down a target of 167 runs, scoring 168 for 6 in 20 overs in what turned out to be a last ball thriller as, with 5 needed to winunbeaten Dinesh Karthik hit a 6 over extra cover – arguably the hardest shot in cricket- off the innings’ last ball off Soumya Sarkar.
India needed 35 from the innings last three overs for victory, pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman started his 4th overs and got Manish Pandey conceding only one leg bye to squeeze Indian strength.
Butndia rebuffed the Tigers in the 19th over when rather surprisingly, Hossain conceded 22 off 6 balls to Karthik, who hit two boundaries and two over boundaries to reduce their required run rate to 12 off 6 balls in the death over for a win. Soumya Sarkar conceded 13 runs in the last overs.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma (56 off 42b; 4x4; 3x6) hit a half century and shared a partnership of 51 off 6 overs with Lokesh Rahul in the 3rd wicket to carry the team collection to 83/3 in 9.3 overs from 32/2 in 3.3 overs before Rahul was caught by Sabbir Rahman off Rubel Hossain.
Rohit Sharma on 98/4 in 13.2 overs as he was caught by Mahmudullah Riyad off Nazmul Islam.
Man of the match Dinesh Karthik quick-fired 29* off 8b, including two boundaries and three sixes while Manish Pandey (28 off 27b; 3x4), Lokesh Rahul (24 off 14b; 2x4; 1x6), Jaydev Unadkat (17 off 19b; 3x4) and opener Shikhar Dhawan(10 off 7b; 1x4) were other double digit scorers for the winners.
