I gave Hardik a cheeky idea to try and mankad at the end: R Ashwin

India beat Bangladesh by a run in a must-win game to keep their hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals alive. For India, R Ashwin was the key with the ball on a track that assisted spin and he came true to the expectations bowling perfect line and lengths. And as the score line of the match suggests the game went down to the wire. Bangladesh needed just a couple of runs to win off the last 3 balls, but they lost 2 wickets in two and the equation boiled down to 2 runs to win on the ultimate ball. Skipper MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya the bowler, Ashish Nehra the senior-most bowler in the team had a longer than usual meeting and that is how they decided the length Pandya was going to bowl.

He bowled a shorter ball on the off side against the usual prediction of a Yorker and Dhoni not only collected the ball but also broke the stumps to ensure his team won the match.

At the post match presentation, MS Dhoni said: “I don’t want to say everything [regarding what was spoken in the last over]. The decision was what length to bowl and what line to bowl. These were the kind of stuff that was being said. I knew once the 20th over starts I had the luxury of time and wouldn’t have been fined. At times you look to finish it with a big shot. When you are batting well, you go for it. It is a learning for him [Mahmudullah] and others who finish games. That is what cricket is all about. If it had gone for six, everybody would have said what a shot. It is important to decide before playing the shot, if you have to play it or not. I think he [Bumrah] bowled really well, the second over he bowled, he was under pressure that was because he had not fielded well. That can happen in this format. He did well to forget that and bowl the crucial 19th over. They were cruising and scoring at a decent rate, instead of using our part-timers, we used our proper bowlers and that made a difference in the end. Overall, very good bowling effort. There were quite a few stuff we were discussing. We didn’t want Pandya to bowl the yorker, it had to be back of a length and how much back of a length, you don’t want the batsman to connect, what field should it be. His execution of the last delivery was fantastic.”

Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza said: “Bowlers did a great job during the bowling time. The batsmen were on top till the last three balls. Anyway, it is bad luck, can’t do much. Last three balls we lost three wickets and we needed only 2 runs. Specially it is disappointing today. We didn’t play well against Pakistan, but played two good games.”

Ravichandran Ashwin was awarded the Man of the Match for his bowling effort. He first got India the breakthrough at the top and then came back in his last to get the all important wicket of Shakib Al Hasan who was tonking hard at that moment. R Ashwin said: “I think this is probably the most we have discussed on a cricket field as a team [on the team meetings during the last over]. We have never really got together and worried so much about a game before. Credit to Bangladesh. I think they played great cricket. I am probably drained right now. I’ll probably go back to my room and crash. That’s how much energy I have (smiles). He (Bumrah) put down a catch, didn’t have a good time in the field, bowled two overs for 22 and from there to come back and bowl like that was excellent. I actually gave him a cheeky idea to try and mankad at the end. I know we might have got a bit of flak, but why not! (smiles). We have not really batted the way where we would be really pleased with our performance. We are a very, very good batting unit. Once we fire on all cylinders we will be great contenders for the title. As of today, with where we stand, I don’t think we are contenders (smiles). But I think it’s not a bad time to peak. If we really pick up our batting, we could be great contenders from now on. When Tamim’s sweep went up in the air I thought we had the game under control. Later on I put a catch down as well. A lot was going through my mind. It was a roller-coaster game. It was great to see the team come back and win the game.”

Here is how Twitter reacted to the game – Twitter Reactions: India snatch a victory off the jaws of defeat