Dinesh Karthik's outrageous six and other talking points as India beat Bangladesh in Colombo thriller

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  • Karthik (r) finished off the match with a last-ball six.

    India captured the Nidahas T20I Trophy in dramatic fashion with a last-ball six against Bangladesh in the final at Colombo on Sunday.

    Rohit Sharma‘s men clinched victory by four wickets while chasing a target of 167 runs to break Bangladesh hearts. The match seemed all but lost when wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik walked in with 34 needed from 12 balls. He smashed an unbeaten 29 from just eight balls, including a six off the last ball with five needed to win, as India pulled off an improbable win.

    Here we look at the key talking points of the match which had it all.

    WASHINGTON SUNDAR IMPRESSES AGAIN

    The young all-rounder is the biggest positive for India apart from the tournament win. Rohit Sharma has shown faith in his off-spin during the powerplay overs and time and again, Sundar has delivered.

    On Sunday, he put the brakes on Bangladesh openers’ scoring rate with clever variations in pace. He dismissed Litton Das and then ran through his overs quickly. By the time he had finished his third, he had only gone for 10 runs.

    He has made the most of the absence of Kuldeep Yadav in this series and will give Virat Kohli plenty of options in the future.

    INDIA’S PACERS BLEED RUNS

    With India’s spinners on top along with a couple of crazy run-outs, Bangladesh’s prospects of reaching a big total looked bleak. However Sabbir Rahman played a blinder (77 off 50) as India’s pacers bore the brunt in the death overs.

    Vijay Shankar (0-48) and Shardul Thakur (0-45) took the maximum punishment, with the two going for nearly 100 in eight overs. In all, 84 came off the last eight overs as Bangladesh finished on a strong note with a fighting total of 166. Their wayward final overs could have cost them the title if not for Karthik’s sensational innings.

    MUSTAFIZUR SHOWS DEATH-OVERS PROWESS

    After Rohit Sharma’s flying fifty, Bangladesh clawed their way back into the game and inched ahead with wickets at crucial moments. With 35 needed off the final 18 deliveries of the match, it was anybody’s game.

    Mustafizur Rahman then almost sealed the deal as he brought out his famous cutters in his fourth over. He beat Shankar four times in a row to start the over as the batsman had no answer to the death-over specialist’s variations. Shankar did manage to get off strike in the fifth delivery but Manish Pandey could only hole out to long-on in the final ball to complete a dream over for Mustafizur.

    Just one leg bye and a wicket at that stage of a T20 final is almost unheard of.

    DINESH KARTHIK’S CAMEO WINS IT FOR INDIA

    With 34 runs needed in two overs, Bangladesh were within touching distance of the Nidahas Trophy when Dinesh Karthik came out all guns blazing.

    The wicket-keeper batsman smashed two sixes and as many boundaries as he collected 22 runs off the penultimate over of the match off Rubel Hossain. The equation came down to five needed off the final delivery with Karthik on strike and he planted a huge six over cover off Soumya Sarkar as the Indian dressing room broke into ecstatic celebrations.

    With regular keeper MS Dhoni’s death over batting skills losing its edge, Karthik will surely be on the selectors’ mind moving forward.

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