Johannesburg: Thirteen years have passed since the evening of Sept. 24, 2007, when a relatively inexperienced captain M.S. Dhoni led Team India to the title triumph in the inaugural edition of the ICC T20 World Cup. The Men in Blue defeated arch rivals Pakistan by five wickets at The Wanderers, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The world witnessed a remarkable achievement by Asian arch rivals India and Pakistan reaching the summit clash at a time when traits of T20 cricket were not widely understood. Any game between the two always sets the temperatures soaring. The cricket fans around the world couldn’t have asked for a better contest than to see Indian and Pakistan lock horns in the finals of the trophy as important as the ICC Cricket World Cup.
India won the toss and elected to bat first and posted a score of 157/5 in 20 overs. The credit goes to Gautam Gambhir’s impressive knock of 75 runs off 54 balls and an unbeaten cameo from Rohit Sharma for 30 runs off 16 balls.
Chasing what felt like a competitive total, Pakistan kept losing wickets at regular intervals, barring Misbah-ul-Haq, opening in the middle order, who kept their hopes alive until the last over. The final over arrived with Pakistan having only one wicket and needing 13 runs to win the Championship.
Dhoni sprang a surprise and handed the ball to Joginder Sharma to get Misbah dismissed, who scooped over fine leg while S. Sreesanth took the match winning catch, sending Indian contingent and cricket fans into a frenzy.
The rookie young team lifted the maiden ICC T20 World Cup trophy and the charismatic Dhoni went on to lead and guide India to a win in the ICC World Cup 2011 as well as the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013.
This post was published on September 24, 2020 4:00 pm