Asia Cup 2018: India win title spectacularly off last ball

Ravindra Jadeja negotiates a tricky delivery against Bangladesh during the Asia Cup final last night. Pic/AFP

India huffed and puffed in the pursuit of a non-too-formidable target of 223, to win the Asia Cup final of the seventh time, six in ODI and once in T20 format. And it was not the first time Bangladesh could not finish off a game despite being on top at some part of the game. India required six runs to win before the last over was bowled by Mahmudullah.

Kuldeep Yadav and Kedar Jadhav, who returned from injury, saw India through to yet another one-day triumph - by three wickets off the last ball. For once, the Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, the top run-getters in the tournament, could not give India a solid start.

And that put pressure on the middle order and they caved in under pressure. It required rear guard action by Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar to help India go through eventually.

It was not a difficult target by any means. But with India losing wickets at regular intervals, and Kedar Jadhav not for the first time in his career, suffering another hamstring injury, India had to battle for each run and barely made it in the end.

Brilliant Liton
The way the Bangladesh openers Liton Das and Mehidy Hasan had begun the match, it seemed India had lost the plot right from the beginning. Put in to bat, nobody expected Bangladesh to come out all guns blazing.

The openers raced away to 120 in 21th over, and there were visions of Bangladesh posting a huge total. But what happened thereafter, left their fans a bit disappointed.

India ploughed back brilliantly, thanks to their spinners, especially Kuldeep Yadav and Kedar Jadhav, backed by superb fielding, which included MS Dhoni's lightening stumping, three run outs and some good catches in the deep. Bangladesh managed only 222, losing 10 wickets for the addition of just 102 runs. However, India had their own struggle while batting as for the first time in the tournament, Dhawan and Sharma failed to provide a big start. Both looked in majestic touch but as fate would have it both fell to strokes that normally would have gone out of the ground.

But it was not their day today, and the shorts went straight into fielder's hand. Dhawan fell for 15 and Sharma 48. Sharma was batting as fluently as ever, till be pulled a short one from Roubel Hossain into the hands of Soumya Sarkar. None in the middle order could produce a decent knock, and the one who was batting fluently, Jadhav, was unfortunately injured. It was a good decision to recall Jadhav and allow Jadeja and Bhuvi to take up the challenge and see the team through.

Well done, Rohit
India are lucky to have stand-in skipper par excellence in Sharma. The way he guided the bowling when they were being hit all around the park was a treat to watch. He made judicious use of spinner Jadhav, Kuldeep Yuzvendra Chahal, once the pacers were taken to the cleaners. Once Jadhav broke the run-away opening partnership by getting rid of Hasan, India tightened the screw.

Though Liton Das held one end up and also went on to his maiden ODI century, he kept losing batsmen at the other end, as a result the innings lost the momentum. Of course Jadhav and Kuldeep did bowling tight line and length, but some of the Bangla batsmen played injudicious strokes to help India's cause.

Also Read - Asia Cup 2018 Final: Liton Das Ton Guide Bangladesh To 222 Vs India

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