When Dinesh Karthik’s charismatic six gave India the Nidahas Trophy

Experienced Karthik got Nidahas Trophy to Team India after hitting six on the last ball in the final and India won that thrilling final by 4 wickets.

On this day, two years ago (March 18, 2018), the charismatic batting of Dinesh Karthik made a mark in the cricket world.  A rain of 29 * (6, 4, 6, 0, 2, 4, 1, 6) runs in 8 balls with Karthik’s bat at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo had dashed the hopes of Bangladesh’s victory. Experienced Karthik got Nidahas Trophy to Team India after hitting six on the last ball in the final and India won that thrilling final by 4 wickets.

This was only the second time in cricket history when a team hit the last ball for six to win the final of a tournament. Earlier in 1986, Javed Miandad did this feat against India in Sharjah. And now, after 32 years, that famous six of Miandad had faded.

Actually, Miandad needed 4 runs to win at that time. In such a situation, they had two options – hit the last ball or hit a six! He finally captured the Australasia Cup with a six off Chetan Sharma.

Here, the challenge was to score 5 runs on the last ball in front of Karthik. In such a situation, six was the only solution. What was it then? Karthik snatched the opportunity to celebrate from Bangladesh by bouncing the ball of Sowmya Sarkar on the extra cover.

Significantly, India needed 34 runs to win on 12 balls in the end. In such a situation, Dinesh Karthik stepped on the crease. Earlier, Mustafizur Rahman had thrown the wicket over of the 18th over of the innings.

Vijay Shankar could not score a single run in that over. But Rubel Hussain conceded 22 runs in the 19th over and reversed the match and Dinesh Karthik returned as the winner on the last ball of the last over.