Asia Cup 2018: 7 reasons behind India's last-ball win over Bangladesh in the final

India are the Asia Cup champions. They won the tournament for a record 7th time when they beat Bangladesh by 3 wickets in the very last ball of the final. What a final it turned out to be!

The fortune fluctuated from one team to the other till the very end. In the end, it was India who yet again won a very close match against Bangladesh to lift the Asia Cup.

There have been so many reasons and turning points in the match which led to India’s triumph. Here are the 7 of those which had an impact on the final outcome of the match.

1. Kedar Jadhav’s breakthroughs with the ball

Kedar Jadhav had the golden arm for India

At the toss, Rohit Sharma decided to play to the strength of his own team, which was chasing, rather than to the weakness of the opponent. That prompted him to field first. Bangladesh would have batted first anyway because they knew they weren't too keen on chasing big totals.

Bangladesh grabbed Rohit’s generous gesture with both hands and opened the innings with Liton Das and bowler Mehidy Hasan Miraz. Mehidy was opening the batting for the first time in his career. It was a bold move from Bangladesh as they were able to experiment with their batting order since they were batting first.

Bangladesh reached 50 in the eighth over itself. Liton Das was the aggressive partner. He reached 50 off just 33 balls with the help of 6 fours and 2 sixes. At the other end, Mehidy Hasan was giving him able company and Bangladesh reached 116 in 20 overs. Rohit Sharma was left to rue his decision to bowl first.

Then came the golden arm for India, Kedar Jadhav. He was introduced into the attack in the 21st over of the innings. He made an immediate impact by breaking the opening partnership, removing Mehidy Hasan for 32. That was the breakthrough India were looking for.

He then went one step ahead by dismissing Bangladesh’s in-form batsmen Mushfiqur Rahim in his 4th over. Jadhav bowled a half-tracker which Rahim pulled into the hands of the deep midwicket. Those two wickets from was the first turning point for India in the final.

2. Jadeja’s brilliant run-out of Mohammad Mithun

Jadeja's run-out to dismiss Mithun was sensational

Mohammad Mithun was consistent for Bangladesh in the middle-order right through the Asia Cup. In the final, a lot was expected of him especially after the cheap dismissal of Rahim. But he was done in by a brilliant piece of fielding by Jadeja. Das smacked a drive through extra cover and the ball would have gone past the inner circle if the fielder had not been Jadeja.

Jadeja dived to his left and stopped the ball. He was about to throw at the striker's end where both the batsmen were camping. He paused for a second and found that the non-striker's end was left vacant and threw the ball down to the bowler Chahal at the non-striker's end to complete a stunning run-out. Jadeja showed a lot of match awareness in deciding which end to throw. That run-out led to the middle order collapse.

3. India’s tight bowling in the middle overs

Once the first wicket fell in the 20th over, India tightened up the screws by not allowing the Bangladesh batsmen to go for their shots. This led to more and more frustration and wickets. Liton Das was kept under check even after reaching his century. From the 21st over to the 49th over, India just gave away 102 runs and took all the 10 wickets of Bangladesh. In the end, Bangladesh were bowled out for 222.

India’s brilliant fielding resulted in 3 run-outs. Kuldeep Yadav took 3 wickets, Jadhav 2, Chahal and Bumrah one each. It was remarkable that Jasprit Bumrah hasn’t conceded even a single boundary in the death overs from 41 to 50 in the entire Asia Cup. India’s tight bowling in the middle overs enabled them to restrict Bangladesh to a modest total of 222.

4. Dhoni’s lightning-quick stumping to dismiss Liton Das

Dhoni's brilliant stumping off Liton Das was the turning point of the match

Liton Das was batting brilliantly on 121 off 117 balls when he was beaten by a googly from Kuldeep Yadav. The ball bounced and reached Dhoni at about chest height. Dhoni with quick hands somehow managed to collect the ball from that height and whipped off the bails in a flash. Liton Das was short of the crease by the smallest of margin. It was a special effort from Dhoni to send back Liton Das, who could have taken the Bangladesh score beyond 275.

5. Rohit Sharma’s fluent 48

When India started their chase, they lost the wicket of their in-form opener Shikhar Dhawan in the 5th over of the innings itself for 15. It was Dhawan’s first failure in the tournament. Ambati Rayadu followed soon for 2. It was then Rohit Sharma got going. He scored a fluent 48 off 55 balls with the help of 3 fours and 3 sixes.

The presence of Rohit enabled India to overcome the early loss of 2 wickets and to make use of the first power play effectively.

6. The Partnership between Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni

Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik were involved in a crucial partnership

The fall of Rohit’s wicket brought MS Dhoni to the crease. One more wicket at that stage would have opened the floodgates. Dhoni hasn’t been in good form with the bat and has been struggling to rotate the strike, especially against the spinners.

But Dhoni kept aside his poor form and stayed put with Dinesh Karthik to add 54 crucial runs for the 4th wicket off 71 balls. They were slow but that partnership was the need of that hour. Both Karthik and Dhoni ensured that there would be no immediate success for Bangladesh after the fall of Rohit Sharma’s wicket.

7. The partnership between Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Jadeja and Bhuvi put on 45 runs

Dhoni got out at the wrong time when India still needed 63 runs for a win. Immediately after that, Kedar Jadhav had to retire hurt. This brought Bhuvneshwar Kumar to the crease. Bhuvi has proved time and again that he is an intelligent cricketer and a decent batsman as well.

Bhuvi, along with Jadeja, added 45 crucial runs. They started off the partnership with quick singles and once they got set, they started scoring quickly. They were always in control of the situation and never panicked. They never allowed the required run rate to go beyond 5. Jadeja scored 23 off 33 with one four. Bhuvi made 21 off 31 with one four and a six. While Jadeja showed a lot of patience, Bhuvi was aggressive and even managed to hit a four off the ever accurate Mustafizur Rahman. Bhuvi had the courage to step out and hit Rubel Hossain over his head for a six.

It was a pity that both Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar got out before India could reach the target. In the end, it was left to the injured Kedar Jadhav to finish off the match with Kuldeep Yadav.

A special mention has to be made about the efforts of the injured Jadhav. He had a problem with his right hamstring which restricted his movements at the crease and to rotate the strike. Despite the agony, Jadhav stayed till the very end to take India home. He remained unbeaten on 23 off 27 balls and his performance as an all-rounder, in the end, proved to be the difference between both the two teams in the closely fought final.