India defeated Bangladesh by three wickets in a nail-biting last ball encounter to bag the Asia Cup title at the Dubai International Stadium.
After being asked to bat first by India, Bangladesh could only manage to post 222 at the scoreboard thanks to opener Liton Das' thunderous 121 runs from just 117 balls. However, no other player in the Bangladesh side could manage to play long inning - Mehidy Hasan Miraz (32) and Soumya Sarkar (33) - as most of them fall flat in front of the power-packed Indian bowling lineup.
Spinner Kuldeep Yadav led the Indian bowling lineup with three wickets for just 45 runs. He was provided strong support by Kedar Jadhav (2/41), Yuzvendra Chahal (1/31) and Jasprit Bumrah (1/39).
India didn't get off to a flying start this time as Dhawan (15) got out at the score of 35. He was followed by Ambati Rayudu, who only managed to add two runs before falling off to Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza at the score of 46.
India's stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma (48), MS Dhoni (36) and Dinesh Karthik (37) later took India close to the target, however, none of them could manage to stay for a longer time.
After Kedar Jadhav got retired hurt at the score of 5/167, it was a small yet highly needful partnership between Ravindra Jadeja (23) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (21) that brought momentum towards the Indian side. But, soon after the two got out, Jadhav was forced to make a comeback in the game and guide India to victory with the help of tail-ender Kuldeep Yadav.
What captains said
"Our spinners consistently bowled really well, throughout the tournament. Their performance has been consistent in last 6-8 months, which is a positive sign. Even for fast bowlers, it wasn't easy to pick wickets. As far as batting is concerned, our middle order didn't get enough chance to bat because top order batsmen batted more in tournament. But whenever they got a chance, they showed signs of handling pressure really well. Overall, our performance has been really dominating."
- Rohit Sharma, India Captain
"We had a good start, we could've scored 280 easily. With a little more effort, it could've been more than 300, but we couldn't do it. We can't blame the bowlers. For a batting order like India, 223...they could've easily chased it. Boys should feel proud but we've to learn many things. Today we had a good start but couldn't go through."
- Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh Captain
Key Stats
# India won their Asia Cup seventh title. They already had the highest record at the tournament with six titles before Friday.
# India now have played 54 Asia Cup matches and has won 36 while Bangladesh have played 48 matches in this tournament and won only 10.
# India have now completed 700 wins in all formats of cricket with 146 wins in Tests, 489 wins in ODIs and 65 victories in T20Is.
# It was the second Asia Cup final to go to the final ball the famous 1986 final in Sharjah where Javed Miandad hit Chetan Sharma for a six.
# Rohit Sharma became the second Indian captain after
Rahul Dravid to win his first four series as captain.
# This was the sixth time Bangladesh were playing in the final of a multinational tournament. They have lost all of them.
# MS Dhoni completed his 800 international dismissals with the stumping of Liton Das. He is the third highest after Mark Boucher (998) and Adam Gilchrist (905).
# MS Dhoni has in 319 dismissals in ODIs (306 catches and 113 stumpings), 294 dismissals in Tests (256 catches and 38 stumpings) and 87 dismissals in T20Is (54 catches and 33 stumpings).
# Liton Das made the highest individual score for Bangladesh in a final with his 121. He is the third Bangladesh batsman to hit ODI hundred against India.
# Liton Das and Mehidy Hasan broke the highest record of opening stand for Bangladesh against India after crossing Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar’s 102 opening stand against India in 2015.
# Mehediy Hasan is the fifth player to open both batting and bowling in an ODI final after Manoj Prabhakar, Neil Johnson, Chris Gayle and Mohammadd Hafeez.
