There was chatter, there were ideas, there were discussions; there were nerves and not to forget a conference of 11 players in the middle. It had all boiled down to six balls; the rest of them that had been bowled throughout the innings were of minimal importance. 11 - The number for the visitors to script history; 6 - The number of deliveries that would decide the fate of a side that had been termed one of the favorites to win the title. Three balls into the final over and it looked as though India’s worst fears of conceding the game would come true. There was a section in the stands that had begun to throw their caps in despair and trudged slowly towards the exit points to make their way back home. Three balls later, that section realised that they had missed out on a thriller. The forty thousand odd though that had stayed back saw young Hardik Pandya hold his nerve, witnessed a captain running towards the stumps that would have given even the fastest sprinter a run for his money, and a celebration from a side that had more relief about the outcome than anyone else in the stadium. Ravichandran Ashwin, who picked up two wickets in his four overs, was all smiles as he walked up to talk to BCCI.TV about the nervy final moments. The thrill, the race in the heart beat, the mood and the discussions that took place during that last over, Ashwin says it all in this free flowing chat. That was one pulsating match. How nervous were you and what do you think would have been the mood in the dugout had you been there? (Laughs) I am thankful that I wasn’t in the dugout and I think it must have been really tough for the people in the dugout because they couldn’t control the game. For us inside, on the field, we still couldn’t control the game because it was almost out of our hands in the last three balls. Honestly, I wasn’t very nervous at the end. Hardik Pandya had to defend 11 and after he picked up two wickets, I was pretty sure that Hardik would pull it off. So much of discussion and so many people pitching in with ideas. Take us through the whole vibe before the final over was bowled. I will tell you one thing and it is a confession - we have never ever discussed a game so much before in our life. On the ground, we always manage to stay away from the skipper and let him take the decisions, but today was one such day when everybody was pitching in with their own set of ideas.

Ashish Nehra was also pitching in and there wasn’t one person who wasn’t pitching in. All sorts of crazy ideas came to us in the middle and that is as much as we have talked in the middle as a group. The field placement was pretty much orchestrated by the whole unit. All eleven of us got together at least on four or five occasions in the game. But in the end, I think common sense prevailed and we won the game. Thankfully, we held our nerve and pulled the game off. Why was Hardik Pandya the chosen one for the final over? He could well have bowled before the final three overs with Jasprit Bumrah & Ashish Nehra finishing off the game. I think it was a given that Hardik Pandya had to bowl the last over. We didn’t have many other choices and we had to take the game deep down. Again, as MS Dhoni always does, he took the game right till the end. We had the choice of bowling Hardik at the 17th, 18th or 19th over, but I think it was a right call to bowl Bumrah and Nehra and then take the game to the last over and hand Hardik the ball. Things didn’t quite look good after the first three balls, isn’t it? He started off pretty well and the first ball he bowled went for a single. I thought if he could actually hold on to two more balls with singles, we had a good chance. But the next one went for a boundary and Mushfiqur Rahim paddled one for a boundary and I thought at that time our chances were slim. All they needed to do was get bat on ball and finish the game. He went for a big glorious shot and I think the emotions got the better of him and then even Mahmudullah failed under pressure. Later on, I think one of those opinions that I gave was to bowl a bouncer because that is the toughest ball to hit for a lower order batsman. We even had a fielder placed for a bouncer. If I was the captain or a bowler, I would do that. Hardik held his nerve brilliantly and bowled slightly short outside off and we got his wicket. You got to give credit to someone who is just 14 games old. I think we held our nerve well and that was basically experience. Personally, a good outing for you as well. Two crucial wickets and the all-important one of Shakib-Al Hasan. I think Shakib’s wicket was very important at that stage because we had Jadeja’s overs to go and if Jadeja had to be effective, he had to come at the right-handers for the ball to spin away and get a couple of wickets. It was very important to get that wicket because he had slogged him for a six in the previous over and that was probably the last over. It was a gamble Dhoni had to take and took the gamble and gave the ball to me and it paid off thankfully. Where would you place this game in your career in terms of pressure and level of anxiety felt on a cricket field? I don’t know where I would put this game. I have spent a lot of mental energy and used a lot of brain today. This is one of those days where I am completely drained mentally and physically. It will be very harsh if I said this is one of the best games I have played and at the same time very weak if I said that is the best game I have played. I think we were tipped to win this game and we had all the ammunition to win the game. It was a bit nerve wracking, but personally I felt if we win this game, we have a good chance in the tournament. Credit to Bangladesh, they played some excellent cricket and we have to applaud them for the way they played. They played fearless cricket which is natural. Overall that has to be one of the closest games I have played but not the best. What rate was your heart beating during that final over?

(Laughs) 145? Not a lot.