Sep
2007
Congrats to Indian team – Champions of Twenty20 World Cup Cricket
What a fantastic play by the Indian cricket team under the captaincy of Dhoni. No one has expected this much from the team with all youngsters who don’t have any previous experience with Twenty20. India reached the finals by defeating Pakistan in the preliminary round, England and South Africa in the quarter finals and the world champions – Australia in the semi. Pakistan, defeated by India in the preliminary round, reached the final, defeating NewZeland in the semi. Among all the plays, the final was the best. India – Pakistan matches were always among the best but this time it was more special as both teams have more youngsters than experienced players.
India, who won the toss and batted first, scored 157 with the loss of 5 wickets. Yuvraj Singh, the hero in the matches against England and Australia could only score 14 runs. It was Gambir and Rohit Sharma, who helped India to achieve this score. The score was not a pretty good one but, they were able to defend it properly. Till the end, chances of winning for both teams changed time to time, and at last India won for 5 runs, making Pakistan all out for 153. In the last over, Pakistan needed 12 runs. Jogindhar Sharma, who was not much experienced was to ball the last over. First ball was a wide, second one – a dot ball and the third one was hit for a six by Misbah, who was on form. In the next ball, Misbah tried to hook it back and it ended safely in the hands of Sreesanth. It was a pay back from Sree for being among the expensive bowlers.
Gambir was the top scorer with 75 runs and for India, Irfan Pathan and R.P Singh took 3 wickets each, Jogindhar Sharma – 2 and Sreesanth – 1. Infan Pathan was presented the Man of the Match award for his bowling(4-0-16-3). For Pakistan, Misbah scored 43 and Imran Nazer – 33. Umar Gul took 3 wickets, Asif and Thanveer 1 each.
Shahid Afridhi of Pakistan was selected as the player of the tournament for his all round performance. Mathew Hayden of Australia was the highest run taker in the series and Gambir behind him. Umar Gul with 13 wickets became the highest wicket taker, R.P Singh and others behind him.
Both the teams experienced the tension and pressure through out the game and it was India, who overcame it. Cheers for Indian players, especially Dhoni for his captaincy and congrats for being the inaugural Twenty20 champions.