AFTER 13 YEARS, A WORLD COUP: 17 years after winning the 1st T20 World Cup, 13 years after winning their 2nd ODI World Cup, and after 2 heartbreaking losses in the World Test Championship and ODI World Cup finals in 2023, India finally ended their title drought, edging out
South Africa
by 7 runs in a thriller that went down to the last over.
WISH TEAM INDIA ON WINNING T20 WORLD CUP
Rohit Sharma
and
Virat Kohli
, the 2 highest run-getters in T20Is, ended their international T20 careers.
A look at the game, in all its swinging glory:
- India score 15 off the 1st over as Kohli races to 14 off 5 balls, but then tumble to 34/3
- Kohli goes into a shell as India rebuild, eventually gets to 50 off 48 balls - his slowest T20 half-ton ever. Doesn't hit a boundary from the 4th over to the 18th
- Promoted to No. 5, Axar Patel responds with a useful 47 off 31 balls but is brilliantly run out by SA keeper Quinton de Kock
- Shivam Dube contributes 27 off 16 balls even as Kohli accelerates at the death before falling for a 59-ball 76 - 1 more than his aggregate of 75 runs in 7 matches before the final
- India score 42 runs in the last 3 overs to finish at 176/7, the highest total in a T20 WC final
- Bumrah and Arshdeep strike to reduce SA to 12/2. Tristan Stubbs and de Kock counter-attack, and Heinrich Klaasen slams 52 off 33 balls
- Needing 30 to win off 30 balls with 6 wickets in hand, SA seem set for victory. But Hardik Pandya dismisses Klaasen and India begin to extract victory from the jaws of defeat
- Bumrah (2/18) and Arshdeep (2/21) bowl superbly at the death. Pandya, booed throughout the IPL, has to defend 16 in the final over
- Suryakumar Yadav pulls off an unbelievable catch to dismiss David Miller. Rabada swings lustily but it's a Bridge(town) too far for SA
SKY Is Not The Limit
Catches win matches, goes the maxim. This one won the World Cup. With SA needing 16 in 6 balls, Miller hit Hardik for what looked like a sure sixer till Suryakumar Yadav (SKY) ran full tilt, grabbed the ball, lobbed it into the air as he went over the ropes, and then stepped back to complete a catch that became an instant legend. A couple of inches literally made all the difference for India and SA.
English (US) ·