Team India has entered the final of the Nidahas Trophy 2018 after beating Bangladesh by 17 runs in Colombo on Wednesday. With this win, India has now recorded seven wins in seven T20Is against Bangladesh. Put into bat India posted 176/3 in 20 overs. In reply, the Tigers could only manage 159/6. A lot of credit for that goes to the young Washington Sundar.

Chasing a challenging total, Bangladesh were on the backfoot from the start, courtesy of a brilliant spell of bowling by young Washington Sundar in the powerplay and dismissed three batsmen. His impressive bowling performance drew applause from everywhere and captain Rohit Sharma went on to term it as a magical spell.

Also read: Washington Sundar Receives The ‘Young Achiever Award’

During the post-match presentation, Sharma said, “Washington started brilliantly with the ball and his magical spell changed the game for us. The entire bowling unit too stuck to their plans and pulled it off for us. The wicket wasn’t the usual wicket we’ve been playing on for the last week.”

He further added, “He is never afraid of flighting the ball, sets his own field and it says a lot about an individual. It allows me also to breathe easy and set the field accordingly. In the series we played against Sri Lanka in India, we saw that from him and today was no different.”

Also read: Rohit Sharma Terms The Win As A Complete Team Effort

Reflecting on his performance, the stand-in Indian skipper said, “It was important for me to step up. Like I said at the toss I tried to take my time with the bat at the start and then play my shots later on. I felt we were 10-15 runs short with the bat at the end, but they bowled brilliantly at the death.”

Talking about the match further, Rohit said, “It was gripping and was slow and hence difficult to play on the up and that is why I wanted to take my time. One set batsman had to bat and I knew a new batsman would find it tough. The partnership between Raina and me was key; he has been timing the ball brilliantly and that is great to see. Hope he can do it for us in the finals as well.”