India clinched the Asia Cup title for the seventh time at Dubai International Cricket Stadium from the Bangladesh. It was a nail-biting finisher which ended at the very last ball of the match when limping Kedar Jadhav flick the ball down to the fine leg boundary and failed to do so, but India got a single leg bye and did just enough.
Bangladesh lost their second consecutive Asia Cup final against the same opponent India but Bangla skipper Mashrafe Mortaza appreciate his players and said he hopes Bangladesh team have won a lot of hearts.
During the post-match conference, Mortaza said, I hope we won a lot of hearts. We fought till the last ball, but we made a lot of mistakes on the field today - batting and bowling. We bowled really well, particularly if we made 240+ throughout the tournament. We asked the batsmen to make at least 260, but at the end of the day, the bowlers did really well. "
"I was asking the bowlers, but I wanted to bowl the quicks first because I wanted to restrict the runs since they were going after us and trying to play shots at that stage. I wanted to leave the last over for Nazmul or Mahmudullah. I thought if the pacers bowled well from 45th over, then there was a good chance that there would be about 10 runs to defend in the last over, " the Bangladesh skipper added.
Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza felt his side should have cashed in after a good start, but was also proud of the way his side battled to defend a relatively low score.
"After finally getting a good start, we should have scored a lot more. We had a lot of hope from our middle-order, but they failed to deliver this time," he said. "We bowled well, but we were never really in the match defending that total."
Earlier, none of the Indian batsmen reached 50, with Sharma leading with 48. Dinesh Karthik contributed 37 and Mahendra Singh Dhoni scored 36.
The Bangladesh innings was built around a first One Day International century by opener Liton Das, who struck and assured 121 featuring 12 fours and two sixes.
He put on 120 runs for the first wicket with surprise opener Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who managed just 32 of them before being caught in the 21st over off Jadhav. After that, the Bangladesh innings faded.
(With AP Inputs)
