Dinesh Karthik reveals what he said to Shankar in the last few overs

The Men in Blue seem to be unstoppable at the moment. On every occasion, one player steps up and takes the responsibility of finishing the game. The win was even more important considering the fact that India had fielded a second string side and wanted to test their bench strength. After losing the first game, the Indians were unstoppable. Dinesh Karthik became the hero of the finals with his glittering cameo of 29 in just 8 balls that ultimately sealed the game in the final delivery.

All’s well that ends well

Earlier, Rohit Sharma had opted to send Vijay Shankar ahead of Karthik to ensure that an experienced player bats in the middle during the final overs. However, his move backfired as Vijay found it hard to get going and faced four consecutive dot balls against Mustafizur in the 18th over.

While Karthik was connecting the ball sweetly, his partner found it hard to even make contact with the ball. Seeing his partner struggle, Karthik went up to him to give a very important suggestion. In a press conference in Chennai, Karthik revealed what was his advice to a struggling Shankar who was failing to handle the pressure of expectations after being promoted up the order.

“He was looking to hit the ball. The only thing I told him was the outfield was fast..look to hit a four and not a six. The only idea behind it was sometimes you look to hit a six, you end up losing head positions. When you want to hit a four, you will have a good base and look to time the ball. I wanted him to time the ball and he was just trying to do that.” Karthik said in a press conference in Chennai. It was the first time that Shankar had got the opportunity to bat in the series and the pressure of big game got to him.

Cricketers have both bad and good days. The good thing for Shankar was that in spite of struggling to connect the ball, he hit a boundary in the final over to reduce the margin. In the domestic circuit, Shankar is seen more as a batting allrounder but Rohit Sharma assigned him different responsibilities. Shankar bowled his full quota of four overs in almost every game and did not get a chance to bat until the finals. There would not have been an end to his disappointment if Dinesh Karthik had missed the last delivery.