Doha: India A paid a heavy price for their insipidness with bat and ball, succumbing to Bangladesh A in Super Over in the semifinals of the Rising Stars Asia Cup here on Friday.
Bangladesh A will face the winner of the second semifinal between Pakistan Shaheens and Sri Lanka A, to be played later in the day, in the final on Sunday.
India A bowlers faltered in the business end as Bangladesh piled a handy 194 for six in 20 overs, and the Jitesh Sharma-led side too ended up at the same score, forcing a Super Over.
However, India inexplicably decided to field Jitesh, Ashutosh Sharma and Ramandeep Singh in the Super Over when they had Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Priyansh Arya in the dugout.
The move backfired spectacularly as both Jitesh and Ashutosh were ousted by pacer Ripon Mondol for naught in the Super Over.
Despite losing Yasir Ali in the very first ball, Bangladesh notched up the required one run through a wide bowled by leg-spinner Suyash Sharma to enter the title round.
Before that, India looked well on course to overhaul Bangladesh’s 194 as Suryavanshi (38, 15b) and Arya (44, 23b) took India past 50 in just 3.1 overs.
Suryavanshi punished Mondol for 19 runs in the first over through two sixes and a four, and hammered two sixes in a row off off-spinner Meherob Hasan.
On the other hand, Arya, who was a tad slow to start, soon joined the party, smashing off-spinner Jishan Alam for two successive sixes.
The left-hander soon creamed left-arm pacer Abu Hider for 4, 6, 4 as India reached 53 in 3.3 overs.
But the fun ended when Suryavanshi fell to Abdul Saqlain as the opener lost his bottom-hand grip while trying to send the pacer over long-on.
The shot neither had power or timing, and ended in the hands of Alam.
Arya departed a little later, finding Alam in deep off spinner Rakibul Hasan. But Jitesh (33, 23b) and Nehal Wadhera (32 not out) milked 52 runs for the fourth wicket as India motored to 150 for three in 14.5 overs.
But Jitesh could not go past a diving stumper Akbar Ali, while trying to sneak the ball past the vacant deep third man off Hider.
At 150 for four, India needed 45 runs in the last 30 overs, and the task was not certainly beyond them considering the presence of hard-hitters like Ramandeep, Ashutosh and Wadhera.
But none of them could find the desired momentum in the final five overs, as the equation boiled down to 16 runs off the last six balls and four off the final ball.
Bangladesh seemed to have the match in their grasp but a moment of brain fade by stumper Ali helped India squeeze the third run to tie the score at 194 for six.
Hasan bowled a perfect full-length delivery that Wadhera could only bunt to long-off, but their attempt to take a second put pressure on the Bangladesh fielder and wicketkeeper, who tried to take out the stumps in vain.
The error in judgement enabled Indian batters to add a non-existent third run to level the scores.
But Indians would only blame themselves for such a tight scenario as Bangladesh were struggling at 130 for six despite opener Habibur Rahman striking a well-paced 65 off 46 balls.
India’s decision to hand the 19th over to part-time spinner Naman Dhir proved expensive as Meherob (48 not out, 18b) eked 28 runs off the penultimate over through a sequence of four sixes and a four.
The final over bowled by pacer Vysakh Vijayakumar too was costly as Meherob and Ali (17 not out, 9b) combined to take 20 runs.
The last two overs produced 48 runs as Bangladesh reached a fighting total, which in the end proved just enough.
