India Bags the Trophy, PAK had to Try Next Time!

India is the ICC World T20 2007 champion. India lifted the trophy by white-washing Pakistan and winning by 5 runs in the final match of the World Cup.

What a match! World-class cricket! A match full of drama and action – IND vs PAK. The ICC World T20 2007 final was a delightful treat for cricket lovers around the world.

Both the teams confronted well, giving a cut-throat competition. Pakistan had to chase the target, India had to restrict the runs and take wickets. Let's look at every minute detail of the finals at Johannesburg.

First Innings

India won the toss and decided to bat first in the ICC World T20 2007 final. The openers – Gautam Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan had to set the foundation right. Gautam Gambhir started to pick up the pace and started hitting runs for the team. Gautam scored a much-needed opening 75 runs off 54 balls with a strike rate of 138.88.

Though it was Yusuf Pathan’s T20I debut, it wasn’t the perfect day for him. After his dismissal, things started to turn around for India, in Pakistan’s favor. Yusuf scored 15 runs off 8 balls.

Now middle order had to balance the sailing boat. Many promising batsmen like Robin Uthappa, MS Dhoni, and Yuvraj Singh who set an unbelievable record of hitting 6 sixes in an over, couldn’t score up to the expectations.

Robin, Yuvraj, and Dhoni scored 8, 14, and 6 runs respectively.

Till the fall of the 5th wicket, India was at 130/5. Rohit Sharma and Irfan Pathan stood at the pitch and protected the wickets till the final bowl of the innings.

Umar Gul did a fantastic job by dismissing the three strongest IND batters – Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir. Umar gave away 28 runs and achieved an economy of 7.00 by bowling 4 overs.

Mohammad Asif and Sohail Tanvir took one wicket each. The bowlers dismissed Yusuf Pathan and Robin Uthappa respectively.

In the end, India scored 157/5. What seemed like an easy target for the PAK batters turned out to be difficult to chase. 

Second Innings

With full confidence, Pakistan batters charged towards the pitch but there was bad news waiting for them in the first over. RP Singh bowled a full-length delivery; the bowl slightly touched the outside edge and Robin caught it; Mohammad Hafeez was sent back to the pavilion.

Imran Nazir secured the pitch for a while along with Kamran Akmal. RP Singh was not satisfied with one wicket. Singh clean bowled Kamran Akmal in the 2.3 over. Pakistan was at 26/2.

PAK didn’t recover from the last wound and soon they got another one. Imran Nazir tried hard to progress in pace towards the target score, but a late reaction got him run out in the 5.4. Imran scored 33 of 14 with a strike rate of 235.71.

In this 8.3 overs, Younis Khan caught out and scored 24 runs off 24 balls. Pakistan’s dream of becoming the champions was in danger.

It was Misbah-ul-Haq who reignited the spirit, but it wasn’t for long. Misbah’s shot over short fine-leg landed the bowl directly into the hands of Sreesanth.

It was all over for Pakistan from here!

Eventually, the team got white-washed in the final over and India won the ICC World T20 2007 by 5 runs.

Great efforts by Gautam Gambhir at the start and Rohit Sharma at the end of the first innings were one of the reasons behind India’s win. The bowlers did a tremendous job. It was due to RP Singh’s thunder bowling that Pakistan openers could set the pace for the batsmen to follow.

Joginder Sharma added four moons to the bowling. Often in T20I cricket, middle order batsmen change the trajectory of the game, flipping the sides complete. But Joginder ensured that this should not happen in the final. Joginder dismissed Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq, who could have led Pakistan to the winning spot.

And Irfan Pathan ensured that the efforts of RP and Joginder won’t go down the drain. Irfan dismissed the lower batting order – Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, and Yasir Arafat.

Sreesanth took one wicket, whereas RP Singh, Joginder Sharma, and Irfan Pathan took 3, 2, and 3 wickets respectively.

Player of the Match – Irfan Pathan

If Irfan wouldn’t have given the top of his performance, India would have lost the opportunity to emerge as the champions of the ICC World T20 2007.

Due to his incredible bowling, Irfan became the Player of the Match of the World Cup final.

Irfan Pathan got to play only 3 balls as a batsman. When it came to bowling, he knocked down three wickets - Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, and Yasir Arafat.

If one of these had stayed on the pitch for long, India would lost the match. Since India won by a margin of a mere 5 runs, stopping these batsmen was a crucial task and Irfan did the job well.

Check out the scoreboard for the IND vs PAK Final of the ICC World T20 2007.

Pitch Report

The overall pitch was balanced. It was the bowlers’ wisdom that brought the best for their respective teams. Talking about the pitch characteristics, the pitch was largely on the slower side. Even Irfan believes the same,

"It's a great comeback for me. I held my nerve and bowled in the right areas. The pitch was a bit on the slower side. It gripped a bit when I bowled slower balls. I tried to mix up the pace and keep things tight. In the end, it could have gone anyway. The bowlers all did really well when Misbah was batting well. We played as a team and we won."

IND vs PAK – Playing XIs