India corners glory inTwenty20 World Cup, beat Pakistan by 5 runs

Sep 24: India keeps its winning record clean, Pakistan World Cup jinx continues

The men in blue have embossed their name in the history Of Twenty20 cricket by becoming the World Champions in the inaugural edition of the slam-bang version of the game. Team India lifted the much-coveted title after defeating their archrivals Pakistan by 5 runs in a riveting final match played at the Wanderers in Johannesburg today.

The match saw some thrilling batting and bowling performances from both the sides with tension soaring high in every ball in the dying minutes of the game, as the match ended in the final over with Joginder Sharma once again became the hero, after his superb semifinal performance and Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq turned out to be the devil for his team, after putting all the hard effort, as he went for a suicidal shot over fine leg to finish off the match, gave an easy catch to Sreesanth to dash all the Pakistani’s hopes.

Indian team and the crowd erupted like volcano as soon as Sreesanth finished the crucial winning catch. The whole team took a victory lap and skipper Dhoni also presented his T- shirt to a young cricket fan. Bollywood superstar Sharukh Khan was also present at the Wanderers to boost the Indian team’s morale. Irfan Pathan was declared Man of the match for his great spell of 4-16-3 in the middle of the innings. Pakistan’s only consolation came through Shahid Afridi who was awarded Man of the tournament.

BCCI rewarded the Indian team with 2 Million US Dollars and a special award of Rupees One crore to Sixer Yuvraj for his six great sixes. Later Sharukh Khan hugged all the members of the team with immense emotions.

Earlier Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first but only managed to put 157 for 5 in the stipulated overs. Indian team management took everybody by surprise by sending Debutante Yusuf Pathan, who came in place of injured Virender Sehwag, straightaway in opening with Gautam Gambhir. Yusuf survived a first ball scare of the innings when Gambhir went for a cheeky single after pushing the ball in to covers and he was late to react. Gambhir was the most successful batsman for the Indian team as he scored a quick fire 76 of 55 balls.

India got first setback in the third over, when Yusuf went for a big heave over mid-wicket to Asif, which hung in the air and Pakistan Skipper Shoaib Malik made no mistake to grasp a well judged catch. Robin Uthappa too joined Pathan soon in the dug out after mistiming a Sohail Tanveer’s delivery and easily caught at covers by Shahid Afridi leaving the team at 40 for 2 in the sixth over.

India completed their first 50 runs in 46 balls and after ten overs India was struggling at 69 for the loss of two wickets. Yuvraj, who took the crease after Uthappa’s departure, was not in his element today. Yuvraj could not be able to time the ball well. Gambhir and Yuvraj added 67 runs for the third wicket but the major contribution came from Gambhir’s bat.

Gambhir was going great guns but got out while trying to paddle sweep Umar Gul over fine leg when Asif took a sharp catch to dismiss him.

Skipper Dhoni couldn’t much do to accelerate the scoring rate but young Rohit Sharma once again came with a cameo and scored 30 runs of 22 balls and gave a crucial 27-run stand along with Irfan Pathan to take the team to a fighting total of 157 for 5.

For India RP Singh struck in the fifth ball of the innings giving Pakistan team an early blow by forcing Mohd. Hafeez for an edge to get caught at slips in the safe hands of Robin Uthappa.

On the other hand Rudra Pratap Singh’s opening bowling partner S Sreesanth went for 20 runs in his first over. Sreesanth was whacked for two sixes and same number of fours by Imran Nazir. RP again cleaned up Kamran Akmal in the third over putting Pakistan’s to 26 for 2.

Sreesanth came back strongly to bowl a maiden fourth over. Later Uthappa ran out Nazir, who was looking dangerous, on a direct hit in the sixth over. Dhoni was very good in rotating his bowlers and it was his decisions with conviction, which saw India romped home.

Dhoni brought Pathan in the 10 th over and he complimented his captain’s decision with a two wicket-denting blow to Pakistani team in the second over of his spell, departing Shoaib Malik and dangerous Shahid Afridi to put them at 77 for 6.

Pakistan’s veteran Misbah-Ul- Haq took away the match from the hands of India at one point of time. He struck three massive sixes in the 17 th over to Harbhajan Singh and brought back Pakistan team in to the match.

RP came back and castled Umar gul in the fifth ball of the penultimate over leaving the score at141 for 9 and then came the final over where Joginder Singh couldn’t do much as Misbah-Ul- Haq himself played a silly shot to end Pakistan’s hopes five runs short of becoming the Twenty20 World Champion, and to be the part of the golden history.