So close yet so far
A magnificent century from Liton Das went in vain as a team effort led India to a three-wicket win over Bangladesh in the final of the Asia Cup 2018 on Friday.
Till date, he had no fifty, his highest score being the 41 he made against Afghanistan in the Super Four a few days back. But on this day, Liton Das scored a century that etched his name in history. Yet he had to be on the losing side come the end of the day.
Chasing a scalable target of 223, the Indians did make a decent start, captain Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan making 35 in 4.3 overs.
But when Dhawan gave a catch to Soumya Sarkar off an Ariful Islam delivery, things started to get interesting.
Only seven runs later, Tigers captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza got Ambati Rayudu caught behind, but Rohit and Dinesh Karthik made things look comfortable for a while.
Rubel Hossain broke this increasingly dangerous looking partnership when Nazmul took a catch to dismiss Rohit, who hit three fours and three sixes to make 48.
Karthik (37) now made 54 with MS Dhoni before being trapped leg before by Mahmudullah.
It looked primed for another Dhoni (36) classic, but Mustafizur Rahman made him give a catch behind the wicket and in the next over Kedar Jadhav had to retire hurt, leaving the tie to be anybody’s game.
Rubel then struck again to remove Ravindra Jadeja (23) to set up a tense finish.
It was Bhubenshwar Kumar who made the difference with 21 and Jadhav (23) later returned to take India home, with the win coming off the last ball.
Liton hit a fifty in just 33 balls as the trick to send Mehidy Hasan Miraz to open the innings clicked for the Tigers after India captain Rohit Sharma had opted to bowl first.
The duo made 120 in the opening partnership before Kedar Jadhav struck, with Miraz contributing 32.
Yuzvendra Chahal then trapped Imrul Kayes (2) leg before and Mushfiqur Rahim (5) gave a catch to Jasprit Bumrah one over later to hand Jadhav his second wicket of the day.
Mohammad Mithun (2) was the next to go, a misunderstanding with Liton resulting in a run out and Mahmudullah (4) also returned to the pavillion soon, getting out in a similar fashion like Mushfiq, trying to go big.
Liton kept his game, helplessly seeing the others coming and departing. His innings only came to an end due to a dubious decision, which has already become the topic of debate on social media.
MS Dhoni was lightning quick to dislodge Liton's stumps, but his feet were on the line and third umpire Rod Tucker ruled in India's favour.
Liton hit 12 fours and two sixes in his 121-run innings that was made in 117 balls. Soumya Sarkar added a vital 33 off 45 balls to take the Tigers past 200.
Soumya reached 1000 ODI runs on the day, but his average of 33.34 says the slack he gets from some of the fans is at times unfair.
For India Kuldeep Yadav was the key with three wickets while Kedar Jadhav bagged two.
Bangladesh were left to rue three run outs in such a vital match.
They lost the third Asia Cup final with this, but given the way they made Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka toil, they can hope the day they will be champions is not so far.