Nidahas Trophy | Dinesh Karthik gives ball-by-ball account of heroic 29-run feat in final

After Manish Pandey was caught by Sabbir Rahman at long-on following Vijay Shankar’s frustrating 1-run stint in the first five balls of 18th over, India’s hopes of winning the trophy were all but gone. In the absence of pinch-hitters like MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya down the batting order, the incoming Karthik had hardly arisen any hopes among the India and the Sri Lankan crowd.

While his first ball showed brute strength, the technically gifted player was all class since then that was reflected in his shots. He slugged the second ball for a boundary at long-on with the fielder at the ropes deceived by the pace and bounce off the shot.

With 10 runs from two balls, the crowd had gotten their voice back and Karthik gave them more reasons to do so as he showed impeccable power and timing off a length angling ball into the deep square leg fence.

“I knew he was not going for a yorker as he was already hit. So I stayed deep in the crease. It kind of clicked."

“I wanted to get four off every ball and I didn’t try to hit big sixes, finding gaps was more important. I have worked on how to use crease positions – Abhishek Nayar has been the sole man behind that development. I moved way down leg, probably last moment I knew he will try to bowl a bit fuller at off-stump but soon I got into a position where I could scoop the ball. I guess I was one step ahead when it came to thinking,” Karthik revealed.

The last over saw Karthik getting only two balls with Shankar struggling yet again at the other side. After Shankar managed to squeeze in a single to Karthik on the second ball, the veteran survived a late scare as he dealt with a Soumya Sarkar yorker to manage a single. And Karthik later appreciated the bowler, who has become a villain in Bangladesh overnight.

However, for all the criticisms hurled at Shankar for his lackluster innings, it would be difficult to estimate if India would have won had he not got an unlikely boundary on the fourth ball before getting out on the fifth ball. With five runs needed on the last ball, Karthik scooped Sarkar over extra cover as the crowd erupted in joy.

“I know I connected very well and it really went very flat. As soon as I hit, I got the feeling it’s going because the ball had hit the centre of the bat, and the bat didn’t turn (in my hand). But since it went too flat, somewhere there was a little bit of doubt. It went little over the fence, na?” asked a smiling Karthik.