5 Reasons Why India Beat Bangladesh In The Asia Cup 2018 Final | Sportsmonks
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5 Reasons Why India Beat Bangladesh In The Asia Cup 2018 Final

The Asia Cup 2018 has come to an end with India beating Bangladesh by three wickets in a thrilling final at the Dubai international stadium in Dubai. With this, India have won their seventh Asia Cup crown.

The final, right from the start, swung like a pendulum till the end and it all came down to Kedar Jadhav and Kuldeep Yadav, who won the game for their team in spite of the former suffering from a hamstring injury.

Let us take a look at the reasons why Bangladesh lost to India in the final of the Asia Cup.

Middle-order failure

Bangladesh surprised everyone by sending Mehidy Hasan Miraz to open the batting with wicketkeeper-batsman Liton Das as the Tigers have been struggling with their opening combination throughout the Asia Cup. The move paid off as Mehidy and Liton gave Bangladesh a great start for the first time in the tournament. The duo batted sensibly as Liton was the aggressor who took on the bowlers while Mehidy kept calm and rotated strike to Liton, who was looking dangerous.

The duo put on 120 runs for the opening wicket in just less than 21 overs and was threatening to take the game away from India. It was when skipper Rohit Sharma introduced Kedar Jadhav and the off-spinner dismissed Mehidy caught by Ambati Rayudu at covers.

After the kind of start they got, the batsmen who followed Mehidy failed to apply themselves and kept throwing their wickets away. Imrul Kayes was adjudged LBW for 2 while Bangladesh's best batsman in the tournament, Mushfiqur Rahim, played an expensive shot and was caught at deep for 5. Mohammed Mithun was run out for 2 and veteran batsman Mahmudullah was caught in the deep for 4. 120/0 in 20.4 overs soon became 151/5 in 32.2 overs with almost all the Bangladeshi batsmen back in the hut.

The Bangladesh middle-order failed to cash in on the start they got and let the game slip away from them.
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Indian spinners dominating the middle overs

The Asia Cup final was one of the rarest instances of Indian opening bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah going for runs in tandem. Bangladesh openers Liton and Mehidy took on them and came out with success, something one cannot see often.

Spin was introduced inside the first ten overs and still, they failed to keep the run flow under check. But, in the middle overs, the Indian quartet of Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravindra Jadeja and Kedar Jadhav applied the brakes and kept the run rate under control. They also chipped in with a few wickets every now and then.

After bowling 33 overs between them, the spinners conceded just 148 runs at 4.4 runs per over and took six wickets. Kuldeep was the ick of the four with figures of 3/45 in his 10 while Kedar accounted for two wickets in his nine overs. Chahal was the most economical among them as he finished with figures of 1/31 in his eight overs.
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Indian fielding

Indian fielding was one of the most underrated reasons why India won the Asia Cup as the fielders were brilliant throughout the competition.

After Yuzvendra Chahal dropped Liton Das on 52, the Indian fielders showed why they are one of the best fielding units going around as they threw themselves on the field, stopped some runs, took catches and effected run outs to restrict the Bangladesh batsmen.

Ravindra Jadeja's brilliance found Mohammad Mithun short of his crease at the non-striker's end and Jasprit Bumrah's tricky catch in the deep sent Mahmudullah packing for 4. Later in the innings, Manish Pandey and Ambati Rayudu were instrumental in running out Nazmul Islam and Soumya Sarkar.
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Rohit Sharma's start

The Indian openers have been doing a terrific job in the Asia Cup as they are taking the team off to a flying start. Both Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan dominated the opposition bowlers right from the word go so far in the tournament.

In the final, Rohit took charge as he attacked them from the start and eased the pressure on Dhawan. Dhawan hit a couple of boundaries before he was dismissed for 15. That didn't stop Rohit from slowing down as he kept cashing on the Bangladesh bowling and threatened to take the game away from them.

His 48 off 55 made sure that India were off to a good start despite losing early wickets and made up for the slow batting approach in the middle overs.
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India's calculative approach

With Kedar Jadhav injured, the Indian batsmen were struggling to rotate the strike as the right-hander, who injured his hamstring, was struggling to run. The team management decided to call Kedar back to the pavilion as it was hampering the team's progress with the idea being that he could go out to bat if and when the team needed him to.

When he went back, India needed 55 runs off the last 12 overs. Ravindra Jadeja got an able partner in Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the duo rotated the strike and kept the scorecard ticking. With the target in control, they hardly took risks and just relied on singles and doubles with an occasional boundary.

When they got out with India in touching distance of a win, Jadhav, as expected, walked out to bat and sealed the game and the tournament for India.

 

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