Dhaka, Mar 18 – 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 win unbeaten 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; 4×4; 3×6) 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; 3×4), Lokesh Rahul (24 off 14b; 2×4; 1×6), Jaydev Unadkat (17 off 19b; 3×4) and opener Shikhar Dhawan(10 off 7b; 1×4) were other double digit scorers for the winners.
Rubel Hossain (2/35), Mustafizur Rahman (1/21), skipper Shakib Al Hasan(1/28), Nazmul Islam(1/32) and Soumya Sarkar(1/33) were the wicket takers for Bangladesh.
Sent in to bat first, the Tigers scored 166 for 8 in 20 overs riding on a superb innings of 77 off 50 balls by Sabbir Rahman.
Sabbir hammered seven boundaries and four over boundaries before being bowled out by Jaydev Unadkat at 147/7 in 18.2 overs.
Mahmudullah Riyad (21 off 16b; 2×4) was the 2nd highest scorer for Bangladesh and shared a partnership of 36 off 4.1 overs with Sabbir Rahman in the 5th wicket before being run out at 104/5 in 14.2 overs.
However, Mahmudullah completed his 1000-run mark in T20I in the match to become the 4th Bangladesh batsman reaching the milestone after Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim.
Mahmudullah was four runs adrift before starting batting on the day and touched the mark taking two runs off Vijay Shankar when the Tigers were on 74/4 in 11.1 overs. He came down the track and heaved a back of a length ball between deep midwicket and long-on for two runs off Shankar.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz (19* off 7b; 2×4; 1×6) played unbeaten innings at the number 8 while openers Tamim Iqbal (15 off 13b; 1×4) and Liton Kumar Das (11 off 9b; 1×6) were two other double digit scorers for the side.
Opening the innings, Bangladesh suffered the first jolt at 27 off 3.2 overs as wicketkeeper batsman Liton was caught by Suresh Raian off Washington Sundar.
They suffered huge pressure further, losing next two wickets – Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar – at 27/2 in 4.2 overs and 33/3 in 5 overs respectively.
Mushfiqur Rahim (9 off 12b), who was caught by Vijay Shankar off Yuzvendra Chahal, failed to stay long with Sabbir before Mahmudullah coming to the crease at 68/4 in 10.1 overs.
Yuzvendra Chahal got three wickets for 18 runs while Jaydev Unadkat (2/33) and man-of the-tournament Washington Sundar (1/20) shared three wickets for India. – UNB
