As expected India won the last match of the Asia Cup. However the win was not a cakewalk. The match was shortened by rain. It was only because of the good drainage of the stadium that we were able to get a match. The match was shortened to 15 overs per team.
Dhoni won the toss and put Bangladesh in to bat. Obviously in shortened matches the side batting second has the advantage of knowing the score that it has to get. Indians bowled well till the 11th over, the Bangladesh scoring was in check. But once Mahmudullah came in to bat , he scored runs fast, right from the word go. He scored a super fast 33 of 13 balls.
Mahmudullah is in excellent form and one can't help thinking that he is batting too low in the order, he should have been given more overs to bat, Bangladesh would have scored much more runs if he had batted at number four or number five. Mahmudullah scored lots of runs of Nehra and Pandya's bowling. Bhumrah bowled beautifully, he gave only 13 runs of his 3 overs.
For the first time in the series the pitch was a complete pata wicket. The bowl swung for the first few overs when Indians were batting other than that it was simply a batting paradise. In this match for the first time in Asia Cup Dhoni decided to open the bowling with Ashwin.
The first five balls that Ashwin bowled were great, a few of them were his newly developed slider that he balls of one finger. The slider swings a lot in air. The last ball of the first over was also an attempted slider, however it ended up being too full outside the off stump. Batsman Saumya Sarkar was able to hit that ball for a boundary. Ashwin was the other economical bowler in this match. He conceded only 14 of his allotted 3 overs.
Indian start was not good. India lost the wicket of Rohit Sharma early in the second over. After a first few quite overs Dhawan and Kohli went after the bowling and were able to bring down the asking rate from around 9.5 runs per over to 8. The Bangladeshi bowlers bowled pretty well but the class of Shikhar and Virat made sure that India managed to keep up with the asking rate. Kohli played some crisp cricketing shots for boundaries, he scored runs very fast without taking too many risks.
Shikhar took a few calculated risks and scored 60 of 44 balls. He was out caught brilliantly by Saumya Sarkar at point, had Sarkar missed the ball it would have gone crashing into the boundary. Dhoni came in to bat at 99/2 in 12.4th over. In the next two balls 3 runs were scored. India needed 19 runs of the last two overs. This is when the Dhoni show began, Al - Amin(whose bowling action seems suspect) came in to bowl. The first ball that Dhoni faced was hit over wide long on for a six.
In the fourth ball of that over Dhoni was on strike again, he hit the ball for a one bounce boundary over wide long off. Now India needed 5 runs of 7 balls. Dhoni hit the next ball for a six over mid wicket. Thus India won the match by 8 wickets with 7 balls to spare.
It was a wonderful final which saw the best two teams competing in the final. Bangladesh has outplayed Sri Lanka and Pakistan in this tournament. Bangladesh can be proud of their performance. Their performance has been at par with the best since the World Cup. There is immense passion for cricket in Bangladesh and it is great to see that the nation is emerging as a power house of cricket.
Dhoni won the toss and put Bangladesh in to bat. Obviously in shortened matches the side batting second has the advantage of knowing the score that it has to get. Indians bowled well till the 11th over, the Bangladesh scoring was in check. But once Mahmudullah came in to bat , he scored runs fast, right from the word go. He scored a super fast 33 of 13 balls.
Mahmudullah is in excellent form and one can't help thinking that he is batting too low in the order, he should have been given more overs to bat, Bangladesh would have scored much more runs if he had batted at number four or number five. Mahmudullah scored lots of runs of Nehra and Pandya's bowling. Bhumrah bowled beautifully, he gave only 13 runs of his 3 overs.
For the first time in the series the pitch was a complete pata wicket. The bowl swung for the first few overs when Indians were batting other than that it was simply a batting paradise. In this match for the first time in Asia Cup Dhoni decided to open the bowling with Ashwin.
The first five balls that Ashwin bowled were great, a few of them were his newly developed slider that he balls of one finger. The slider swings a lot in air. The last ball of the first over was also an attempted slider, however it ended up being too full outside the off stump. Batsman Saumya Sarkar was able to hit that ball for a boundary. Ashwin was the other economical bowler in this match. He conceded only 14 of his allotted 3 overs.
Indian start was not good. India lost the wicket of Rohit Sharma early in the second over. After a first few quite overs Dhawan and Kohli went after the bowling and were able to bring down the asking rate from around 9.5 runs per over to 8. The Bangladeshi bowlers bowled pretty well but the class of Shikhar and Virat made sure that India managed to keep up with the asking rate. Kohli played some crisp cricketing shots for boundaries, he scored runs very fast without taking too many risks.
Shikhar took a few calculated risks and scored 60 of 44 balls. He was out caught brilliantly by Saumya Sarkar at point, had Sarkar missed the ball it would have gone crashing into the boundary. Dhoni came in to bat at 99/2 in 12.4th over. In the next two balls 3 runs were scored. India needed 19 runs of the last two overs. This is when the Dhoni show began, Al - Amin(whose bowling action seems suspect) came in to bowl. The first ball that Dhoni faced was hit over wide long on for a six.
In the fourth ball of that over Dhoni was on strike again, he hit the ball for a one bounce boundary over wide long off. Now India needed 5 runs of 7 balls. Dhoni hit the next ball for a six over mid wicket. Thus India won the match by 8 wickets with 7 balls to spare.
It was a wonderful final which saw the best two teams competing in the final. Bangladesh has outplayed Sri Lanka and Pakistan in this tournament. Bangladesh can be proud of their performance. Their performance has been at par with the best since the World Cup. There is immense passion for cricket in Bangladesh and it is great to see that the nation is emerging as a power house of cricket.
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