||Desk Report||

India added another feather to their crown by beating Bangladesh in the Asia Cup final on Friday (September 28). The Tigers missed the opportunity to lift their much-coveted trophy for the third tima in the last four editions of the tournament.

Setting a 223-run target for India, Bangladesh bowled brilliantly to compensate for their poor decisions in the batting department. The Rohit-led men needed six run off the last over and Mashrafe Mortaza handed the ball to Mahmudullah Riyad as all of their four genuine bowlers had bowled their full quota by then.

The Bangladesh skipper said he opted for Mahmudullah because of the all-rounder’s experience of bowling in the death-overs. Although Mahmudullah took the game to the last ball, an injured Kedar Jadhav did not give the opponents any room for a last-minute drama and helped India seal the match by three wickets with a single leg bye off the final delivery.

“I said to (Mahmudullah) Riyad that the only chance we will have is when they mis-hit one. We wanted Kuldeep [Yadav] to mis-hit one, because [Kedar] Jadhav is a recognized batsman. He would have better calculations.

“The inside edge off the fifth ball could have gone to the stumps. Actually, you need luck in these situations, but when we had it under control, we couldn't capitalize,” said Mashrafe.