DUBAI: India clinched victory over Bangladesh in the nail-biting final of the Asia Cup 2018 on Friday courtesy of Kedar Jadhav’s last moment heroics where he stayed calm and brought his side home by three wickets.
Captain Rohit Sharma (48) and wicketkeeper MS Dhoni (36) also made useful contributions to deny Bangladesh from defending a below-par first innings total of 222.
Mustafizur Rahman and Rubel Hossain picked up two wickets each to dent the opposition and bring the game to the last very ball.
Earlier, Bangladesh opener Liton Das hit a maiden century but the side failed to post a challenging target in the final of the Asia Cup in Dubai.
Das held the innings together during his 117-ball 121 which featured a dozen boundaries and two sixes but Bangladesh, who were put into bat, were all out in 48.3 overs despite a solid opening stand of 120 with Mehidy Hasan.
Hasan was promoted to open the innings as the pair attacked India’s pace-cum spin India attack.
But once Hasan was caught off Kedhar Jadhav in the 21st over the innings collapsed with Bangladesh losing four more wickets by the time the score reached 151.
Hasan hit three boundaries in his 59-ball 32 while Soumya Sarkar made a 45-ball 33 with a boundary and a six.
Former captain Mushfiqur Rahim, who scored 144 and 99 earlier in the tournament, also hold out off Jadhav who finished with 2-41. Rahim made just five.
Bangladesh’s cause was not helped by three run-outs while left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav returned with the best figures of 3-45.
Defending champions India won their seventh Asia Cup title while Bangladesh have never won the event.
BANGLADESH: Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Imrul Kayes, Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan, Mashrafe Mortaza (capt.), Nazmul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman
INDIA: Rohit Sharma (capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah