Asia Cup 2018 Final, India vs Bangladesh: 5 Unnoticed things from the game
Bangladesh having earned their place to play in the final were more determined than ever to prove a point. The quality of cricket Bangladesh have been playing these days, it comes as no surprise that they have found success of late.
Dubai was set for a good contest in the final. India won the toss and put Bangladesh into bat first. The wicket looked flat and good to bat. Bangladesh made most out of it. Openers Liton Das and Mehidy Hasan showed good intent and played positive cricket. Soon they put up a 100-run partnership for the first wicket.
Bangladesh were 120 for no loss and India couldn't take a wicket but then arrived the man with the golden arm Kedar Jadhav. He struck immediately to send Mehidy back. From there on Bangladesh self-imploded and all they managed was mere 100 more runs for remaining 9 wickets. Liton Das was at his best to score his maiden century to post 223 as the target for India.
In reply, Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan started to attack right from ball one. Najmul Islam sent greedy Dhawan back to the pavilion. Rohit continued from one end but India's middle order was exposed to do the bulk of the scoring. Soon Rohit fell two short of his half-century.
It was Karthik and Dhoni who kept the scoreboard ticking with a 50 partnership to take India closer to the target. Mahmudullah got rid of Karthik when India needed 89 runs to win the match. Just when things were going India's way, Mustafizur silenced the crowd by getting Dhoni caught behind. Jadeja and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar kept going and in the end, India pulled off a last-ball victory to upset Bangladesh once again in the finals.
Here are the five unnoticed things from the final:
#1 First 100 run opening partnership for Bangladesh since 2016
If there was one area Bangladesh were seriously needed improvement, it was at the top. Their openers had failed to provide good starts to the team throughout the Asia Cup. The opening stand averaged a mere 17 till the final.
In the absence of Tamim Iqbal, Bangladesh tried Mehedy Hasan with Liton Das in the big final. It finally worked for them. They not only went past their average score but managed to put up a 100-run stand. Both the batsmen looked very positive and rotated strike easily. They showed great intent at the top. This was their first century stand since 2016. It did come off at the right time for Bangladesh.