The Hindu : Sport : India crowned champion after a pulsating contest

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Tuesday, Sep 25, 2007
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Sport

India crowned champion after a pulsating contest

Nandita Sridhar

Dhoni’s men hold their nerve at the crunch; Misbah fails to finish it off

— Photo: AFP

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS: The Indian players celebrate with the ICC World Twenty20 trophy.

Johannesburg: In a dream climax for a dream final, Gautam Gambhir’s fearless batting, R.P. Singh’s astounding opening spell and Irfan Pathan’s spell in the middle-overs all came down to one moment. Misbah-ul-Haq was batting in a parallel universe, unaffected by the collapse on the other side, and had clobbered Joginder Sharma for a straight six. Pakistan needed six runs off four balls, chasing India’s score of 157. Misbah then attempted the most over-used and abused shot of the tournament, the scoop over fine-leg. The ball soared up and S. Sreesanth was under it.

It’s hard enough taking such catches, and would have been even harder, with thousand prying eyes on the ball, millions on television and a World Championship at stake. Only Sreesanth will know how he did it. Clinging on to the ball for dear life, Sreesanth’s catch signalled the end of the match. After two weeks of outrageous, outstanding and audacious cricket, India had won the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 at the Wanderers, here on Monday.

R.P. Singh had given the Indian defence a brilliant start. He got the ball to float away from Mohammed Hafeez, who couldn’t resist a nick, and was taken perfectly by Robin Uthappa.

Kamran Akmal came in at No.3, and departed with little fuss, with R.P. Singh castling him. Imran Nazir struck some off the middle of the bat, but his running cost him, after Uthappa flung one and found the stumps.

Younis Khan was the sort of solid batsman you would run to, to wipe out a gettable target. He tried one slog too many, and found Yusuf Pathan at mid-on.

Key dismissal

The crucial wicket came courtesy Irfan Pathan, after Shoaib Malik’s pull-shot was mishit. Rohit Sharma took the catch.

Irfan struck again, after Shahid Afridi’s meaningless heave found Sreesanth. Yasir Arafat fell to a beauty from Irfan.

Misbah meanwhile smashed three sixes off Harbhajan in the 17th over, and suddenly, the target seemed a tad small.

Sreesanth had an erratic spell but dislodged Sohail Tanvir’s stumps with a quick one. R.P. Singh was at it again, and Umar Gul was bowled.

Earlier, Gambhir took India to a decent score. After Virender Sehwag pulled out, Yusuf opened the batting with Gambhir.

Yusuf nearly scripted himself a comic caper, slowly setting off for a run that could have ended his first international innings before facing a ball. The desperate lunge was worth one massive six over mid-wicket.

In the previous matches, Gambhir had given India the starts, but had fallen, sometimes picking the wrong shot, and sometimes the wrong bowler. In the biggest match of the tournament, Gambhir’s shot-selection was spot-on. The cuts worked perfectly, and so did the shots over mid-wicket.

The pitch was slow and there was added onus on generating extra bat-speed to score the runs, which Gambhir did creditably. Yuvraj Singh spent a laborious few overs, by his standards, and a miscued pull was pouched by Gul off his own bowling.

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni crossed the thinnest of lines between connecting and missing, with a perfectly arced one from Gul finding the stumps.

Rohit Sharma struck a few blows, and India was past 150.

Irfan bagged the man-of-the match award, while Afridi was adjudged man-of -the-tournament.

SCOREBOARD

India: G. Gambhir c Asif b Gul 75, Y. Pathan c Malik b Asif 15, R. Uthappa c Afridi b Tanvir 8, Yuvraj c & b Gul 14, M.S. Dhoni b Gul 6, Rohit (not out) 30, I. Pathan (not out) 3; Extras: (lb-1, w-4, nb-1) 6; Total (for five wkts. in 20 overs) 157.

Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-40, 3-103, 4-111, 5-130.

Pakistan bowling: Asif 3-0-25-1, Tanvir 4-0-29-1, Afridi 4-0-30-0, Hafeez 3-0-25-0, Gul 4-0-28-3, Arafat 2-0-19-0.

Pakistan: M. Hafeez c Uthappa b R.P. Singh 1, I. Nazir (run out) 33, K. Akmal b R.P. Singh 0, Younis c Y. Pathan b Joginder 24, S. Malik c Rohit b I. Pathan 8, Misbah-ul-Haq c Sreesanth b Joginder 43, S. Afridi c Sreesanth b I. Pathan 0, Y. Arafat b I. Pathan 15, S. Tanvir b Sreesanth 12, U. Gul b R.P. Singh 0, M. Asif (not out) 4; Extras: (b-1, lb-4, w-6, nb-1) 12; Total (in 19.3 overs) 152.

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-26, 3-53, 4-65, 5-76, 6-77, 7-104, 8-138, 9-141.

India bowling: R.P. Singh 4-0-26-3, Sreesanth 4-1-44-1, Joginder 3.3-0-20-2, Y. Pathan 1-0-5-0, I. Pathan 4-0-16-3, Harbhajan 3-0-36-0.

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