September 24, 2007, will go down as probably the most iconic moments within the historical past of Indian cricket. It was on September 24, 2007, when a squad predominantly comprising Younger Turks helped India drive dwelling the inaugural ICC World T20 title.
Led by MS Dhoni and below the watchful eyes of the crew supervisor Lalchand Rajput, India scripted historical past on the Wanderers as they defeated arch-rivals Pakistan within the summit conflict.
There have been loads of ebbs and flows within the sport, and neither crew dominated the competition all through. Dhoni elected to bat first after successful the toss.
However India may by no means actually get going and saved shedding wickets at common intervals. Opener Gautam Gambhir performed a courageous hand (75 runs off 54 balls) and anchored the innings very well to assist the crew submit a decent whole of 157/5 of their 20 overs.
The full by no means actually gave a menacing look and Pakistan had been anticipated to succeed in there with out a lot hassle. However a valiant bowling show from the Indian bowlers led by Irfan Pathan, who picked up a three-fer and solely conceded 16 runs in his quota of 4 overs swung the sport in India’s favour.
India had been dictating phrases to Pakistan up till the sixteenth over. With 54 runs wanted off 4 overs and three wickets within the kitty, Pakistan wanted a miracle to get again into the competition and Misbah-ul-Haq offered the identical.
He smashed Harbhajan Singh for 3 sixes within the seventeenth over as Pakistan accrued 19 runs in whole. Misbah took the sport deep and helped Pakistan attain a stage the place they required 13 runs off the final over.
With Harbhajan clearly struggling, Dhoni determined handy the ball to Joginder Sharma. Joginder had efficiently defended 22 runs within the semi-final conflict towards Australia beforehand however the cushion of runs within the bag was a lot much less this time round and the stakes had been sky excessive.
Joginder bowled an enormous huge up entrance and skipper Dhoni walked all the best way from behind the stumps to calm the then teenager down. He adopted it up with a dot ball however bought hit for a six on the second supply and it appeared to many who the sport was out of India’s grasp.
However Joginder saved his cool and induced a false stroke from Misbah because the latter ended up hitting a scoop straight down the throat of S Sreesanth at quick fine-leg on the following supply. Joginder scripted historical past for India and confirmed immense braveness within the face of adversity.
Taking a visit down reminiscence lane, Joginder spoke to Star Sports activities and reminisced in regards to the wonderful day.
“I used to be the one who had bowled the final over towards Australia within the semi-final. Throughout apply periods, we had been requested to bowl certain amount of balls as yorkers and outdoors off-stump and Mahi (MS Dhoni) had plenty of religion in me,” mentioned Joginder.
“(Within the closing) I used to be fairly assured and ran to bowl the final over the second Mahi signaled. He instructed me to not fear in regards to the consequence.”
“After I bowled the primary supply, it swung and was known as a large. Individuals assumed that I used to be below stress and that is why I bowled a large however I used to be fairly glad to see the ball swing. I at all times felt fairly assured when the ball swung as I believed that it gave me an higher hand whatever the batter on strike.”
“The subsequent ball was a dot and I bought hit for a six on the second ball. Dhoni walked as much as me once more and I instructed him that there is nothing to fret, if there is a change in strike then I am going to eliminate the opposite batter.”
“Misbah was already positioned to play a scoop on the leg-side, whereas I used to be nonetheless in my comply with by means of considering that I am going to attempt to bowl a yorker exterior off. However I modified my technique and pulled my size again and reduce down on tempo. The ball did not hit the meat of his willow and Sreesanth settled below it and took the catch.”
