India vs Bangladesh: Did Ashwin ask Pandya to 'cheat' in the last over?

Bengaluru: In one of the best escape acts in the history of T20I cricket, Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Team India somehow managed to claw their way back to keep their semifinal hopes alive in the ICC World T20 with a nerve-wracking one-run victory against Bangladesh.

India survived a mighty scare to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in front of a packed crowd at the M Chinnaswamy stadium, helping them to the second position in group 2.

After posing 146 runs on the board on a rank turner, ‘The Tigers’ weren’t troubled much during chasing the decent target. However spin twins Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja soon changed that scene with tight with both of them giving away just 42 runs in their allotted 8 overs picking 2 wickets each.

Bangladesh required 11 runs from the last over. After much discussion, Hardik Pandya was given the ball and three Bangladeshi batsmen got out in the last three balls in one of the best turnarounds in Indian cricket.

The sold out fans at the arena went ecstatic.

Ashwin, who was won the Man of the Match award, got the all important wicket of Shakib Al Hasan. He then revealed quite an interesting thought that he told Pandya.

“I probably gave him a cheeky idea to try a ‘Mankad’ in the end. We might have taken flak, but why not,” he said.

Ashwin also gave his insight to what went on during the last delivery.

“Before that ball, everybody got together and decided what we wanted to do. My idea was to bowl a bouncer. I think that’s the toughest ball to hit for a lower-order batsman. He missed it and we won the game,” he added.

On Dhoni taking off the right gloves, Ashwin said:

“It made sense to run to the stumps. It could have ricocheted off had he thrown with gloves on. If we didn’t win, we could have had a Super Over and lost the match. I thought when Mushfiq (Mushfiqur Rahim) hit that boundary, I thought they would nudge it around. But Hardik held his nerve. He had to bowl the last over, he and Nehra bowled really well. The other choice was Yuvraj,” he said.

Former India batsman Vinoo Mankad was the first cricketer to orchestrate the Mankad kind of dismissal. In 1947-48, during India's tour to Australia, Mankad ran out Bill Brown in the second Test. He broke the wicket at the non-striker's end during his run-up while Brown was out of his ground. The incident angered the Australian media and they named this type of dismissals as 'Mankading'.