The Final showdown for the Asia Cup between Home Team, Bangladesh and the visiting team, India that was scheduled to occur at 19:00 IST, was delayed due to the onset of heavy rain. It started with a slight drizzle and surprised everyone when it started pouring like the rain before Noah’s flood. The Match started two hours later then that scheduled. To add on, the game was shortened to a 15 over match. Being as it was, the toss went underway in which India won and elected to field first.

The Bangladeshis began their innings with Sarkar and Tamin at the helm. After what seemed like a slow start pushed to sudden overdrive, with boundaries and runs taken of bowlers especially that of Nehra, Sarkar was caught out by Pandya followed by Tamin four balls later was adjudged leg before wicket thanks to a deceptive delivery by Bumrah catching Tamim off-guard.

Shakib and Rahman held out and put up a partnership of 34 runs bringing Bangladesh to 64/2 by over 9. In the very next ball, Shakib attempted a sweep off Ashwin but was caught by Bumrah. The crowd fell into silence as the saw their former captain depart. Followed by Rahim’s ‘bat in the air’ run out and Mortaza being caught out by Kohli. At this point it seem like there was nothing the Bangladeshis could do. However in over 13, Mahmudullah fought back, scoring 20 runs off Pandya taking the score to 113/5. 7 runs were scored in the last over, with which Bangladesh closed at 120/5. Bumrah was the pick of the bowlers with other leaking runs with an excellent economical spell which saved atleast 20 runs with an economy rate of 4.33.

A quick break in the innings and the Bangladeshi players followed by Indian openers were out in the middle to take things forward. All eyes were set on Rohit Sharma who was going to face the first delivery by Taskin Ahmed. He pitched it outside off stump but it was defended well by Rohit and there seemed to be no real movement from the pitch.

Rohit rotated the strike to Shikhar Dhawan, who hit Taskin for a boundary. A quiet over was followed by a productive one from Al-Amin Hossain who challenged Rohit with the first two balls. Evidently, the Mumbai player was struggling to find the form he had embraced throughout the tournament and which helped the Indians in the past. Unfortunately, Rohit edged the very next ball to the slips and was caught by Soumya Sarkar. Bangladesh had struck the first blow to India in the form of Rohit.

This brought the Vice captain Kohli to take his place, who dealt in 1s and 2s initially but accelerated the innings as the match progressed later. The main thrust was provided by Dhawan who was only interested in scoring boundaries as he looked confident playing the pace attack. After 5 overs, India had moved onto 33/1, thanks to 3 boundaries scored by Dhawan and Kohli who targeted the young Abu Hider.

After the Bangladeshi onslaught, it was clear that the chase wasn’t going to be an easy one with the pitch offering little help to either the batsmen or the bowlers. Bangladesh couldn’t match India’s spin quality and this showed as Shakib went for 26 runs off his two overs. Even the captain Mortaza was smashed for 16 runs as India looked to close the chase. However, the run-rate kept rising in this rain curtailed game with only 15 overs per side.

Taskin struck by taking Dhawan in the 13th over but the damage had already been done. Dhawan scored a brilliant half century and hit a 44 ball 60. It was time for ‘Captain Cool’, Dhoni to finish the innings and not let the match slip away. Hitting Al-Amin for 20 runs alone in the 14th over, Dhoni finished the chase in style with a six and 7 balls to spare! Shikhar was named Player of the Match as India won its first T20 format Asia Cup.