5 Times Team India scripted memorable wins from the brink of defeat

#1 MS Dhoni’s leadership trumps Bangaldesh’s inexperience

Occasion: ICC T20 World Cup 2016, Group-stage fixture; India won by 1 run

Ask any Bangladeshi fan what is the most cherished moment of their cricketing history, the instant reply will be that 2007 World Cup fixture where they shocked their big brothers India with a thumping victory at the Port of Spain, one that eventually paved way for the Men in Blue’s first-round exit.

Ask them, the most heartbreaking moment, and the opposition would be the same- India. And, quite incredibly both occasions featured Mushfiqur Rahim; just that they were on extreme ends of the spectrum. While the 2007 win was a moment of incredible joy for Mushfiqur and the whole of Bangladesh, the 2016 loss in the ICC World T20 fixture in was nothing short of a heartbreak.

But Mushfiqur and Bangladesh had themselves to break that day. Chasing 7-146, Mushfqiur had nailed Hardik Pandya for back-to-back boundaries to reduce the equation to 2 runs off 4 balls. But instead of getting the job done with singles, Mushfiqur went for the glory shot.

He wanted to nail Pandya’s low full-toss outside the ground but instead, he found out a Shikhar Dhawan in the deep. The next batsmen did the same and Dhoni had preempted it. A shrewd captain that Dhoni was, he placed Jadeja at deep mid-wicket instead of Dhawan and asked Pandya to bowl low full-toss.

Mahmudullah took the bait, went for the shot but couldn’t get past Jadeja, who took a brilliant diving catch.  Mahmudullah’s wicket brought the equation down to 1 of 1. Bangladesh would have run regardless of whether the batsman connected with the ball or not.

But, little did they know that Dhoni had once again preempted it. He took one of his gloves out, asked Pandya to bowl a back-of-a-length delivery wide outside off-stump, the batsman missed and then proceeded to pull out his ‘Usain Bolt’ moniker to out-run the batsmen, giving India an unthinkable, an unfathomable 1-run win.