How an 'upset' Dinesh Karthik powered Rohit's India to 2018 Nidahas Trophy triumph
Colombo: Dinesh Karthik was the man of the moment for Team India on Sunday, when the wicket-keeper batsman helped Men in Blue win the 2018 Nidahas Trophy.
After what looked like the match turning in Bangladesh favour, he coming into bat at No 7 Karthik blasted 29 off eight balls to help India seal the title in dramatic style. Needing five runs off final delivery, the Tamil Nadu batsman hit a six over deep extra cover to spark celebrations in the Indian dressing room.
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Speaking at press conference after India’s victory skipper Rohit Sharma praised Karthik, but also said that he was upset “I told him - I want you to bat and finish off the game for us, because whatever skill you have, it will be required in the last three or four overs. He can do that for us. That is the only reason he was not batting at six in the 13th over when I got out. He was quite upset with that. He’ll now be quite happy how he finished off the game. To do what he did today will give him a lot of confidence going forward,”.
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“the most important thing he has belief in himself whatever situation comes he is ready to deliver we need such kind of guys in our team” he added.
With India struggling to get going in the run chase, the management decided to promote Vijay Shankar ahead of Karthik. Speaking on the move Rohit said "Any changes that we make in the game it is due to some reason and we think many times before making change. We wanted experience guy to bat at the end, because we thought Mustafizur will bowl the 18th and 20th over and we wanted experienced guy to handle him, because we knew that he will come out with off cutters and slower bowlers and we thought Dinesh would have been a proper choice at that time."
"When we got out we had 8-9 overs left and all we asked Vijay to do was go after the bowlers and cover the run rate. He tried his best probably for the first time he got to bat in the series also" he added.
Fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman gave away just one run in the 18th over and took the crucial wicket of Manish Pandey, who made 28, to give Bangladesh the edge.
Karthik then stepped up to clobber paceman Rubel Hossain for two sixes and two fours as India took away 22 runs in the 19th over and make the equation easy.
"Dinesh and Manish and Vijay (Shankar) knew that the pressure is on them, so one mistake here and there, and pressure does play a big part. That's exactly what happened,"
"We knew he (Karthik) could finish off the game for us." said Sharma.
