At 36 last year, an out-of-reckoning Dinesh Karthik scripted an inspirational return to not just in the sport, but also made it to the T20 World Cup side. Karthik, who had not played since 2019 World Cup and had already made his commentary debut, return to the Indian side on the back of a glorious show in the IPL last year before cementing his place in the World Cup team. Karthik has been one of the inspirational cricketers in modern era, yet more that that run, the name has remained synonymous with 2017 tri-series tournament named the Nidahas Trophy.
Karthik had single-handedly scripted a stunning down-the-order knock in the final against Bangladesh to help India bounce back from the jaws of defeat and lift the trophy. The tournament was never played again, but the very name brings back one memory, and one memory only.
Talking on the RCB Podcast Season 2, Karthik said, “I have talked about this for more times than I have wanted to. It has now become the most-watched video in the history of sports on YouTube. The second most watched sports video ever on YouTube is that 19th over. It is amazing how it works.”
DK continued, “The backstory of the game was that we played the Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka had won their first two matches in the league phase. It was a tri-nation tournament where each team had to play each other twice. In the first two games they won and had one foot in the final. It so ended up happening that they ended up losing their last two matches and rather badly to Bangladesh. Then they ended up losing out on a chance to the final.”
{{/usCountry}}DK continued, “The backstory of the game was that we played the Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka had won their first two matches in the league phase. It was a tri-nation tournament where each team had to play each other twice. In the first two games they won and had one foot in the final. It so ended up happening that they ended up losing their last two matches and rather badly to Bangladesh. Then they ended up losing out on a chance to the final.”
{{/usCountry}}Karthik recalled that he had remained padded up to step in right from the second over as India began their chase of 167 in Colombo. But added that he was made to sit by skipper Rohit Sharma until the 18th over when Manish Pandey had been dismissed with India requiring 34 off the last two overs.
The veteran India batter said, “The first half was pretty much decent as the Indian bowlers did a great job. The second half came and they were way ahead of us. They were dominating us and we were struggling. So it came to a stage where there were 2 overs remaining and we needed 34 runs. I was padded up to go. I padded up in the second or the third over, waiting to walk out. I kept on standing up to walk out and Rohit told me, not now. There was a wicket in the 15th over. I was sure that it was my turn to walk out in the center.”
Karthik added, “Rohit once again made me sit and in the 18th over, it was Manish Pandey who got out. Eventually, I went to the center. Two overs and 34 runs mean that you will obviously have to try and go at as many balls as you can. I started hitting and the fans brought out the Naagin Dance and we ended up winning the match.”
The wicketkeeper-batter hit two sixes and two boundaries in the penultimate over of Rubel Hossain to bring the required rate down to 12 off six balls. Vijay Shankar then struggled against bowler Soumya Sarkar at the start of the final over before scoring a boundary in the fourth ball. However, Sarkar had the last laugh as he dismissed Shankar in the penultimate ball leaving India five of the last ball with Karthik on strike. The batter however took on the fuller delivery and smashed it over cover for a flat six as India won by 4 wickets. Karthik scored an unbeaten 29 off eight balls.
He continued, “So when you face an equation of 34 from 2 overs, you obviously end up thinking where to hit boundaries and so. I found myself in a few good positions and played some good shots. They didn’t see it coming because they had actually done a phenomenal job until then. Then came the final over and there was a barrage of yorkers being hurled at us. We couldn’t get anything in our favour and luckily one of them ran to the boundary and somehow I managed to get the strike.”
It all came down to the final ball where 5 runs were required. This guy was at the top of his mark. I was like, wherever he bowls, I will hit it. He bowled a good delivery, that was outside off-stump and slightly full. Luckily for me, I connected that well and it was a big ground. The ball travelled flat but travelled nonetheless and it was a six and we ended up winning the tournament.”