NEW DELHI: With five runs needed off one delivery, the spectators in the crowd and viewers all over the world would have had their eyes set on Soumya Sarkar and
Dinesh Karthik in the final of the
Nidahas Trophy 2018
, but that was not the case for the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, who did not watch Karthik hit that sensational six.
ALSO READ: Rohit praises Karthik for last-ball six effort in title win And the reason for that? Well, Rohit thought that the odds are just too high for his team to win and he went about readying himself for the Super Over, if Karthik managed a boundary off the last delivery.
ALSO READ: Five moments that mattered in India's win for the ages“I had walked back in the dressing room to wear my pads,” said Rohit in the press conference after the match.
Rohit lauded Karthik's ability to handle pressure. "He has batted in that position in a list of games for his state teams. Even when he was playing for Mumbai Indians (in the Indian Premier League) with me, I knew his ability with the bat," Sharma told reporters.
ALSO READ: Dinesh Karthik’s epic and other last-ball finishes in T20Is"He's got some different types of skill shots that would probably be required at that point at the death overs. That was the only reason we held him back. I can proudly say it paid off," said Sharma.
"Dinesh and Manish and Vijay (Shankar) knew that the pressure is on them, so one mistake here and there, and pressure does play a big part. That's exactly what happened," said Sharma.
"We knew he (Karthik) could finish off the game for us," added the skipper.