India vs Bangladesh T20Is: Reliving Dinesh Karthik’s magical Nidahas Trophy final cameo

Bangladesh kickstart their tour of India with the first T20I to be played at the newly renamed Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on November 3rd. This will be followed by the second T20I in Rajkot on November 7th and the third and final one will be played in Nagpur on November 10th.

There was a major controversy in the build up to the series as Bangladesh’s Test and T20I skipper Shakib Al Hasan was banned for two years by ICC (one year suspended) for failing to report three corrupt approaches made to him. In Shakib’s forced absence, Mahmudullah has been named the T20I captain for the India series while Mominul Haque will lead the team in the two Tests, the second of which will be a historic Day/Night Test at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

As for the T20Is, India and Bangladesh have faced each other on eight occasions with the former being supremely dominant and winning all eight encounters. The last time these two teams met in the T20I format was in the Nidahas Trophy final at Colombo on March 18, 2018, where Dinesh Karthik played an incredible cameo to take India to victory from a near-impossible situation. Here's a quick recap of that knock.

India need 34 from 12, Karthik gets 29 from 8

Dinesh Karthik celebrates after his heroics in Nidahas Trophy final.

Karthik may have had a rather average international career. However, thanks to this blinder he played at the Premadasa, he etched himself into the Indian cricket history books. Chasing 167 to win the final, India were down in the dumps after 18 overs, at 133 for 5. 34 runs were needed off the last two overs and, in their mind, Bangladesh may even have begun planning their celebrations. Little did anyone know what was to transpire in the next 12 deliveries.

Rubel Hossain was given the responsibility of bowling the penultimate over. He began with a low full toss that was slammed by Karthik for six over long-on. Next ball, Hossain got his yorker wrong, and Karthik heaved the half-volley past long-on for four. The third ball was a full delivery on leg stump, which the Indian batsman outrageously swatted over square leg for the second maximum of the over. After a couple of quiet deliveries, Karthik finished off the over by moving around the crease, confusing the bowler before eventually going one knee to scoop the ball to the long-leg boundary. The equation was now down to a very gettable 12 from six.

Soumya Sarkar was handed the task of bowling the last over and he began brilliantly to make it nine runs from three balls. Vijay Shankar then sent a full ball to the third-man boundary to bring the equation back to attainable margins. Shankar, however, was dismissed with the next delivery. The ball was hit to long-on, who dropped it. But, the man running in from long-off took the rebound.

With five runs needed off a single ball, Karthik needed to do a Javed Miandad and he pulled it off in stunning fashion. He flat-batted Sarkar over the cover boundary, and the ball had enough power behind it to sail over the ropes. India won in incredible style and Bangladesh were left to rue their inability to finish off what seemed a like a sure victory.

Calm before the storm

Before DK went berserk, Mustafizur Rahman displayed some amazing skills and used the cutters to such precise impact that the 18th over of the innings was a wicket maiden. Rahman beat Shankar four consecutive times and with the last ball of the over got Manish Pandey, whose slog had no power and landed in the hands of long-on. The 16th over bowled by Rahman also yielded only eight runs as the equation tightened to 44 off 24 balls. Rahman finished with excellent figures of 1 for 21 but it wasn’t enough to stop India from stealing victory.

Earlier in the innings, Rohit Sharma got a half-century but Shikhar Dhawan (10) and Suresh Raina (0) fell cheaply as India stumbled to 32 for 2. Lokesh Rahul got a start but fell for 24 from 14. When Sharma was dismissed for 56, India were in a spot of bother at 98 for 4. Even though Pandey contributed 28, it was a snail-paced knock as he faced 27 balls.

Bangladesh’s total of 166 for 8 was build around Sabbir Rahman’s 50-ball 77. Yuzvendra Chahal’s 3 for 18 however kept Bangladesh in check while Jaydev Unadkat also ended with respectable figures of 2 for 33.

In the end though it all came down to Karthik’s brilliance on the day, which stole the show at Colombo.

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