It was a time for the tears and emotions to flow freely. India beat
South Africa
in a humdinger of a final in
Bridgetown
to clinch the
T20 World Cup
. Obviously, the stars found it difficult to articulate their thoughts. But
Jasprit Bumrah
, who was named Player of the Tournament, was his usual calm self.
"Usually, I'm the one who tries to keep my emotions in check and get the job done but today I don't have many words.
I don't usually cry after a game but the emotions are taking over. We were in trouble but we're really over the moon to win from that stage. My family is here, we came close last time and we got the job done, there's no better feeling than to get your team through in a game like this."
WISH TEAM INDIA ON WINNING T20 WORLD CUP
The ace bowler added, "It just felt good, and I tried to keep myself in a bubble and tried not to think too far ahead. When the big day comes, you have to do it. I always think about one ball and one over at a time, don't think too far ahead. Emotions can take over, it was taking over but you have to keep it in check but now that the game is over, it can come out."
Player of the Match
Virat Kohli
finally showed his class in the final with a superb 76. "This was my last T20 World Cup, this is exactly what we wanted to achieve. One day you feel like you can't get a run and this happens, God is great. Just the occasion, now or never kind of situation. This was my last T20 game playing for India and we wanted to lift that cup."
The master batsman revealed that he would have announced his retirement from T20 Internationals even if India had lost. "It's time for the next generation to take the T20 game forward. It's been a long wait for us, waiting to win an ICC tournament. You look at someone like
Rohit
, he's played 9 T20 World Cups and this is my sixth. He deserves it. It's been difficult to hold emotions back and I think it's going to sink in later. It's an amazing day and I'm thankful."
Axar Patel, who chipped in throughout the tournament with allround contributions, said, "It means everything for me. The last few years I've been getting injured, not getting that performance. I wanted to do something for India and I'm feeling proud. I tried to keep it simple. Just thought of it as another match. That worked for me."
Meanwhile,
Hardik Pandya
, who found his form in the tournament and helped India immensely, was seen crying his heart out after the triumph. "It means a lot. I'm very emotional, we've been working very hard and something was not clicking. But today we got what the whole nation wanted."
Alluding to the difficult period he has gone through in the last 6 months,
Hardik
said, "It's more special for me, after how my last six months were, I haven't spoken a word. I knew that if I kept working hard I could shine and do what I could do."
English (US) ·