World T20 continues to surprise and the first nail biter happened yesterday as Indian won against Bangladesh by 1 run. Hardik Pandya who was given the ball with the task to defend 11 runs, gave a single of the first ball and two boundaries in the next two deliveries.
With just two runs to win, he got rid of Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah. With two runs required of last ball, MS Dhoni himself took the responsibility to complete a run-out. However this win is not just by luck and it is clearly by Dhoni's leadership skills and abilities.
During the last over, Dhoni was completely having chit-chat with Pandya, Nehra and Yuvi. After being hammered for 9 runs in first 3 balls, Dhoni got rid of Mushfiqur Rahim on the fourth delivery. Before Pandya starts bowling his fifth delivery, he changed fielding position and he brought his best fielder Ravindra Jadeja at Deep Mid-wicket region and that helped them to get rid of Mahmudullah as Jadeja grabs a stunner at Deep mid-wicket.
The last ball and Bangladesh needed one run to get into Super over and two runs to win. As expected they tried to run a bye and Dhoni who was behind the stumps never threw the ball. He ran up to the stumps to make the hit. He was fast as a lightning. And once again he proved his ability, as he was anticipating that bye run and he never wore gloves.
Bangladesh Captain Mashrafe Mortaza who was depressed said that his team lost it under pressure and he said he is not going to blame anyone. Dhoni said the plan was to bowl back-of-a-length delivery, instead of the yorker and Pandya delivered what was expected from him.
Below are some of the statistics after completing a thriller in last ball
• India have never lost to Bangladesh in T20 format. This is the fifth victory for Team India against Bangladesh.
• This is the fourth time, a team has won a match by one run in World T20. India is the only team to do it twice. Earlier they did it against Proteas in 2012.
• 146 is the lowest total defended by India in T20's. Previous lowest was 152 against Proteas in 2012. Ironically, the victory margin is 1 run in both the games.
• India has won all the 6 matches which were played during festive day of Holi. Earlier they played 5 ODI's and this also includes two victories from World Cup matches.
• MS Dhoni became the first captain to reach landmark of 1000 runs. He also became the fourth Wicket keeper to do so. Sangakkara, Brendon McCullum and Mohammad Shahzad were the first three
• MS Dhoni also becomes the first person to do it without scoring a fifty.
