Dinesh Karthik 'pumped' about India's first-ever sports NFT, offers signed jersey to buyer

Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik had shown the world how his finishing skills are just as good as his wicketkeeping when he hit a last-ball six in the 2018 India versus Bangladesh match to win India the Nidahas Trophy. The hit was considered one of the most memorable moments in modern Indian cricket history. Now, the event is making a place for itself in cricketing history as it is being associated with India’s first-ever sports NFT (Non-Fungible Token).

Titled the “Six For The Win”, the digital art NFT will be put up for public auction in October. The art is an animated clip that showcases Karthik’s inner thoughts as he faces the Bangladeshi bowler moments before he smashed the ball for a match-winning hit. Dinesh Karthik himself has now revealed that he can’t contain the excitement for being part of India’s first-ever sports NFT.

Karthik revealed that he is ‘pumped’ for the art auction. The wicketkeeper-batter also revealed that he would be gifting an autographed jersey from the game to the highest bidder. Taking to his official Twitter handle, Karthik shared a glimpse of the art and wrote, “I’m so pumped about the auction for India’s very first sporting NFT, kicking off today at https://rarible.com! I’m also giving the top bidder a precious item from my personal collection: the (autographed) jersey I was wearing during the 2018 Nidahas Trophy match! (sic)”

The NFT will be put up for auction on rarible.com which sells art online. Karthik partnered up with squash player Saurav Ghosal and coordinated with tech partners from New York to produce the digital art. The art piece also features Karthik’s voiceover.​ The auction will be open to the public between October 12 and 22.

India's 2018 win in Nidahas Trophy final against Bangladesh

In the Nidahas Trophy in 2018 between Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and India, each team played two matches with both the other teams and the top two teams made their way into the finals. The Indian team led by Rohit Sharma in the absence of Virat Kohli fixed their place in the finals after defeating Bangladesh by 17 runs in the fifth match of the group stage.

However, Bangladesh got the better of Sri Lanka in the final group game and won the match by two wickets. In the finals, Bangladesh scored 166 runs in their allotted twenty overs. Leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal was the peak of the Indian bowling lineup, as he scalped three wickets, followed by Jaydev Unadkat’s two-wicket haul and Washington Sundar picked up a lone wicket by giving only 20 runs. 

Dinesh Karthik's last-ball six

Chasing the target of 167 runs, India lost opener Shikhar Dhawan early. However, skipper Rohit Sharma scored a half-century of 56 runs off 42 balls. Batting at No.4 KL Rahul scored a quickfire inning of 24 runs in 14 balls. Manish Pandey and Vijay Shankar added to India’s chase by scoring 28 and 17 runs respectively. Meanwhile, Dinesh Karthik after joining Vijay Shankar in the middle scored 23 runs off seven balls, before hitting the final six off the last ball to help India win the tri-nation tournament.

(Image: PTI)