OdishaLIVE Bureau
It was a contest of nerves won narrowly by India against Bangladesh
In a nerve match match between India and Bangladesh, India defeated Bangladesh and clinched the Asia cup title for 7th time. A two week long tournament ended with a thriller where India were subjected to decent target of 223.
India’s unorthodox duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Kedar Jadhav wreaked havoc after opener Linton Das’s fine hundred as Bangladesh were bowled out for a modest 222 in the finals.
Initially Bangladesh made a flying start with an opening partnership of 120 when Liton Das scored his maiden ODI century. Just when it looked like Bangladesh would make a match of it, things went down hill as no other batsman showed up their skills. A couple of run outs and some poor cricketing shots landed the Bangladeshi batsman in to trouble, the innings lasted for 48.3 over.
Kuldeep’s 3/45 and Jadav’s 2/41 was well complemented by Ravindra jadeja’s electric fielding inside circle and Dhoni’s smart work behind the stumps.
Excluding the openers, the rest Bangladeshi batsman wholly scored only a mere102 runs, which resulted in a target of 223 for India.
While the 2nd innings India started of really well. As Dhawan and Rohit were pretty sure enough about their forms. Dhawan departed a bit early from a delivery by Islam. Rayudu, who scored well in his previous matches, was unable to get a knock and went on for slow and steady partnership under pressure. Mahamudullah was lucky enough to get a breath rough as Kartik scored 37. Jadhav looked impressive with his cricketing shots until he suffered a cramp.
Dhoni scored 36 and was caught behind by Rahim, the worried Indian team was well balanced by Bhubaneswar kumar and Jadeja. The game was extened to a last over thriller, where 6 runs required in last 6 balls. A jaw dropping last over for the cricket fans came to an end as India won the Asia cup 2018. The man of the match was Liton Das and The man of the series was Shikhar Dhawan.
(Story: Shivani Panda | Edit: Sriram Singh Rattan)
