18 March,2018 10:20 AM IST | Colombo | Anand Vasu
Glass sprayed outside the dressing room after Bangladesh burst into celebration following win over SL on Friday. Pic/AFP
Shakib-Al-Hasan and Nurul Hasan should take to the streets of Colombo and buy the first lottery tickets they find, for they are the luckiest pair in this city at the moment.
After being at the centre of some ugly scenes on the field, which almost resulted in the match against Sri Lanka being forfeited, Shakib and Nurul were each fined only 25 per cent of their match fee and picked up a demerit point each.
If what happened on the field wasn't bad enough, the glass door of the Bangladesh dressing room was smashed. A CCTV camera placed above the dressing room door caught footage of four players rushing out even as glass sprayed everywhere, but it was impossible to tell which of these inflicted the damage. Two dressing room attendants saw who the player was - and a source confirmed this happened the instant Mahmudullah hit the penultimate ball for a six - and were willing to name the player, but in the absence of anyone in a position of authority being able to corroborate this, no further action was taken on the matter. Bangladesh can now count their lucky stars, as players have been suspended and banned for far less, and focus on getting their skills right in the final against India.
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For India, who have ticked every box in getting to the final, this is a slightly tricky situation. After all, if they win, there will hardly be any credit coming their way, given that it is only Bangladesh they have overcome. If they lose, then they will get slammed, for there is no real reason why this team should not be able to beat Bangladesh.
India and Bangladesh have played each other five times in Twenty20 Internationals, and every time India have won. There is always a first time for everything, but Rohit Sharma will be hoping the final of a tournament in which his team has hardly put a foot wrong, is not the occasion for the tide to turn.
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