Dinesh Karthik’s amazing hitting out of this world: Shakib Al Hasan

Bangladesh were on the verge of victory before Dinesh Karthik’s blistering knock took the game away from them. Karthik’s smashed 29 runs off just eight deliveries including a last ball 6 to seal the match for India.

Karthik announced his arrival with 22 runs of Rubel Hossain in the penultimate over. Further, a last-ball six off Soumya Sarkar sealed the win for Rohit Sharma & Co.

Batting first Bangladesh posted 166 on the board With Sabbir Rahman coming to the party. Mahmudullah and Mehidy Hasan provided some support at the end. Meanwhile, India bowlers were brilliant in containing an in-form Bangladesh batting line-up. The spinning duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar claimed four wickets giving away only 38 runs.

In reply, Rohit Sharma gave India a solid start. Lokesh Rahul and Manish Pandey scored some important runs in the middle. However, it was Karthik’s cameo at the end that sealed the match for India.

Shakib lauds Karthik’s fantastic hitting:

A shocked Shakib Al Hasan at the post-match presentation ceremony said that Karthik’s cameo was an exhibition in hitting.

“It is not an easy thing to do to hit a low full-toss like that. Five of the eight balls he faced went for boundaries. It was amazing hitting. I don’t know many batsmen who can hit a six off the first ball, and then keep hitting the boundaries. There was something otherworldly about it,” Shakib said.

Karthik’s onslaught undid all the earlier work put by Bangladesh’s bowlers in the middle period in which they did not concede a boundary for close to five overs.

Shakib further explained the reason behind Rubel bowling the penultimate over, which saw Bangladesh losing the match.

“When Mustafizur bowled that brilliant (18th) over, India needed 35. Rubel was our best bowler after the way he bowled the first three overs. I believed in him. I thought even if he bowled badly, he would go for 15 runs. I would have 20 runs to play with during the last two overs, which would have given Soumya some cushion,” Shakib added.

Few runs short:

Sabbir Rahman’s 77 helped Bangladesh to recover after an early collapse. However, Shakib reckoned that the final total of 166/8 was still not enough against India’s power-packed batting line-up.

“It was a tough period for us when we lost three quick wickets. If we played better, we may have scored more runs. I think overall we were 10-15 runs short but if someone asked me at the start of the game what was my ideal score in a final, I would have said 170 so I think we were 4-5 runs short,” Shakib mentioned.

However, the all-rounder is hopeful of learning from the narrow losses. Previously, Bangladesh had lost by one run against India in the 2016 World T20 encounter in Bangalore.

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