My Favourite 2018 Cricketing Memory: Revisiting the epic of the Nidahas Trophy

2018 was a year that brought untold joy for the average Indian Cricket fan, even if there were a few disappointments around. The heartbreaking test series losses in South Africa and England were outweighed by the joy that unfolded on various fronts, be it winning the ODI series in South Africa, or winning the Asia Cup, or retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with those stupendous victories at Adelaide & Melbourne or in domestic cricket, where an unfancied Vidarbha team shocked the giants of domestic cricket to win the Ranji Trophy or of seeing Rahul Dravid’s young charges in the Under-19 team win the ICC Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand. But for me, my favourite 2018 cricketing moment was of seeing a young & inexperienced Indian team being led by Rohit Sharma, win the Nidahas Trophy T20 Tri-Series in Sri Lanka in March, which was to see Bangladesh join as the third team with Sri Lanka and India.

When the selectors decided to sit down to pick the team for the series, they were of the opinion that due to the constantly hectic playing schedule of some of their major players, it would be a prudent step to send some of the fringe & upcoming players in for the tournament and thus, the likes of Captain Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar & Kuldeep Yadav were all rested for the series and a young team under the leadership of Rohit Sharma was selected to go for the series. There were a few experienced faces in the side though, with opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan selected as the vice-captain of the team, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik being recalled & KL Rahul, Manish Pandey & Yuzvendra Chahal being present in the team, but there were call-ups for several youngsters, such as Washington Sundar, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Siraj, Jaydev Unadkat, on the back of their IPL & domestic circuit performances.

The tournament started with a right-old shellacking at the hands of Sri Lanka, where Kusal Perera, who decided to take fancy to the Indian pacers, especially Shardul Thakur and pelted an aggressively-quick half-century to make short work of a relatively tricky chase of 175 in the opening game of the tournament. But the bowlers rebounded strongly against Bangladesh as they restricted the Tigers to a measly 139 with Jaydev Unadkat and Vijay Shankar leading the way with 3 and 2 wickets respectively, and then Shikhar Dhawan just polished the target off with a sedate and pleasing half-century as India chased down 140 in just the 19^th Over and the young Vijay Shankar got the Man-of-the-Match award for his spell of 2-32 in his 4 over spell, which was a surprise for me personally. India coasted through their second-round games against the same two sides with more players putting up their hands and putting up commanding performances such as Shardul Thakur and Manish Pandey against Sri Lanka or the captain himself Rohit Sharma and the young off-spinner Washington Sundar against Bangladesh and easily booked their spot for the final, with Bangladesh joining them after beating the hosts in a heated game which saw an attempted walk-out, many arguments between both sets of players & a distasteful celebration by Bangladesh as well as a broken dressing room door, none of which endeared Bangladesh to the local crowd.

The final at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo saw a packed house and surprisingly, it was a near pro-India crowd which had thronged the aisles which included the local Sri Lankan fans who cheered for India in huge numbers. Returning to the cricket, Bangladesh recovered from the poor start where both Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal choked Bangladesh in the early goings but a terrific knock from Sabbir Rahman hauled them to 166/8 in their quota of 20 overs, which in a final, was always going to be tricky for India. The captain Rohit Sharma led the response for them with a superb half-century, but a flurry of wickets in the middle overs meant that India was staring down the barrel and when Mustafizur Rahman or “The Fizz” delivered a wicket maiden over in the 18^th over of the innings, which counts for gold in this format, Bangladesh could almost see the finishing line closely, with India needing 34 from just 12 deliveries. But unfortunately for them, one man was still standing between them and victory and that man was a grizzled veteran of the format but never acknowledged highly, Dinesh Karthik.

Dinesh Karthik had a long career journeyman-like IPL career without finding a permanent home in any franchise and was coming into the tournament on the back of good domestic form and was hoping to re-establish himself in the Indian team, but those who’d seen him play couldn’t argue that he was one of the best T20 finishers in India, after all, he had played a starring role in registering India’s first-ever victory in a T20 International in their T20 debut back in 2006. Thus, if there was one man who could’ve changed the entire scenario of the final, then Dinesh Karthik was that man to do so.

Coming to the 19^th over of the game which was to be bowled by fast bowler Rubel Hossain, it was impossible to predict the headspace Dinesh Karthik was in, but his face looked focussed and strangely calm, a sight which was a complete contrast to the ever-fiddling Dinesh which we had come to know till that time. The first ball saw a remarkable bit of premonition from DK as he hit a Rubel Hossain yorker-length delivery straight over his head for a massive six, as he stood outside his crease in anticipation of the yorker and just let his bat-swing do the rest. With that, the Premadasa was finding its voice once again after being silenced by the Fizz. The second ball was creamed away into the midwicket boundary for four as DK slogged a full-length delivery past the fielder on the fence for a boundary and the equation was reading a little better than before with 24 runs still needed off 10 deliveries. That was when DK pulled the next rabbit out of his hat and in another superb bit of anticipation, hung back deep into his crease and flicked a swinging delivery from Hossain into and over the deep-square leg fence for another six and the game was now well and truly alive, with Karthik now batting on 16 runs off just 3 deliveries. After playing out a dot ball and taking a couple of runs off the next two balls, the equation read simply for India needing 16 runs from 7 deliveries and it was critical that a boundary comes India’s way and that what DK did, by scooping the final ball of the 19^th over, over the fine-leg fielder brought inside the circle for a boundary, and he showed a great degree of improvisation with that stroke as he moved outside his off-stump to counter the wide yorker that was bowled by Hossain. With that massive 22-run over, India brought the equation to 12 runs needed from the last over, but slightly unfortunately for them, the rookie Vijay Shankar, who had been button-holed by the Fizz in the 18^th over with that wicket-maiden over was on strike against the medium pace of Soumya Sarkar.

The first delivery was called “wide” by the umpire and the sequence of the over went thus, dot, single, single till the third ball of the over and with 9 runs required off 3 balls, the need for a boundary was pressing and Vijay Shankar finally managed to squeeze the gap between the “point” and “gully” fielder and eked out a valuable boundary to make the equation read as 5 runs required from 2 balls, but alas, Vijay Shankar, in his attempt to finish the game with a six, was caught on the long-off boundary, but the one good thing that emerged from his dismissal was that it was Dinesh Karthik who was now on strike for the final ball and not the newcomer Washington Sundar, which was critical from the Indian perspective.

The last ball of the final and an entire stadium’s breath is suspended in anticipation but the face of Dinesh Karthik was as impassive as ever in the face of mounting tension. The final ball of the game saw Soumya Sarkar undo all the good work of the previous five deliveries as he bowled a length ball outside the off-stump and with the kind of zone DK had entered into, that wasn’t the smartest idea, and DK just reached out to the length of that delivery and let his bat swing beautifully through the line and hit the ball over and beyond the cover boundary to end up with the match-defining 29* off 8 balls and also cue one of the most exuberant celebrations ever witnessed inside the hallowed ground of the Premadasa Stadium. The mood of the stadium had turned blue while Soumya Sarkar, his teammates and their supporters were left shell-shocked and teary-eyed by the turn of events, both the Indian and Sri Lankan fans took turns at taking a dig at the Bangladeshi supporters by doing the “Naagin Dance” celebration that the Bangladeshi players and the fans had been (in)famous for performing and even the Indian team paid tribute to the crowd by taking a lap of honour waving the flags of both India and Sri Lanka.

In the space of those eight balls, Dinesh Karthik was able to display the limitless range of his prowess as a finisher and his innate resilience as a player who’s not been broken down despite never finding a constant spot in the Indian team. It was this resilience that made him not buckle in the crunch moment despite the situation that he was to face and had the experience and the calmness to not try anything too adventurous and play proper cricketing strokes to yield high rewards. And to use a clichéd phrase, this was the innings only young boys who have the power to dream innocently could’ve dreamt of playing and purely for seeing Dinesh Karthik succeed the way that he did, the Nidahas Trophy and its final is my most favourite cricketing memory of 2018.

Your comments and views are certainly welcome and please share your most favourite cricketing memory of 2018.