Suresh Raina lauds India for retaining Asia Cup title

India middle-order batsman Suresh Raina was all praises for Team India for having successfully retained the Asia Cup title. The Men in Blue were defending champions and once again came face to face with Bangladesh in the final of this edition of the Asia Cup. However, Rohit Sharma and Co. struggled to cross the finish line but thanks to a hobbling Kedar Jadhav, they won the match off the final ball.

Having won the toss, India opted to chase which has been their strength in recent times. Bangladesh got off to a dream start courtesy of the right-handed opener Liton Das. He stitched together a 120-run opening partnership with Mehidy Hasan, and the Tigers were set for a total above 300. That’s when skipper Rohit Sharma decided to bring on the man with the golden arm Kedar Jadhav. He immediately got rid of Mehidy Hasan which set off a landslide of wickets.

India struggled to get to the target

While Liton Das got to a century, wickets kept tumbling at the other end, and Bangladesh could only manage 222, a total which was well within India’s reach given their powerhouse batting line-up. Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma started off with the usual intent to score runs, but Dhawan’s wicket brought down India’s scoring rate drastically.

They failed to build partnerships and had to see off many dot balls, perhaps too many for their liking. It was MS Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik who steadied the ship for the Indians with a 54-run stand. As the latter departed, Kedar Jadhav came to the crease, but soon experienced some discomfort with his hamstring while taking a quick single. Jadhav had to retire hurt, and India were certainly in a spot of bother at 167 for 5.

Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar put together a valuable stand to bring India within touching distance of victory. It took a hobbling Kedar Jadhav to sneak a leg-bye off the final ball to get to a thrilling win. Thus, India won their seventh Asia Cup title.

Suresh Raina, who was part of the Indian team which won the 2016 Asia Cup, tweeted, “Congratulations #teamIndia on winning #AsiaCup for the record 7th time, Proud of you guys! Also appreciate high spirited game efforts by team #Bangladesh. #INDvBAN #AsiaCupFinal2018″

Congratulations #teamIndia on winning #AsiaCup for the record 7th time, Proud of you guys! 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳
Also appreciate high spirited game efforts by team #Bangladesh. #INDvBAN #AsiaCupFinal2018 pic.twitter.com/X3hiyiekCJ

— Suresh Raina (@ImRaina) September 29, 2018

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