It’s been 15 years since that dreadful day in Durban where India Defeated arch rival Pakistan. The match ended in a tie after Pakistan batsman Misbah-ul-Haq was run out on the last ball of the match. However, the rules of the tournament did not allow for sharing of points, and thus the match had to be decided by a bowl-out. A ball-out, similar to a penalty shootout in football, is when both teams attempt to hit the stumps with no batsman in front. Each strike will give them one point.
Also read: The Legendary India vs Pakistan Bowl Out at the 2007 ICC Opening World T20
Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Robin Uthappa were right for India and hit the stumps. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi all missed the target. India won with a 3-0 lead in the bowling.
Meanwhile, the captain who oversaw that win and went on to become Captain Cool, revealed how he prepared for this ‘unique situation’. He said that he started every net session with the bowling and that those who beat the others were given a chance on that fateful night.
“There was something that was very special about that T20 World Cup and bowling was one of the things. And we had never practiced bowling before. So whenever we went for practice we started it with a bowl out,” he was heard saying in a video that is doing the rounds on social media.
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“Whether before practice or after practice, because we knew we might need a situation where we might have to bowl if there was a tie. We’ve made it very clear, it can be for fun but Whoever hits the wickets more often, they will be the ones that will be used when the situation arises.”
He further said that the ball out did not mean that it was a matter of the bowler as priority was given to those who showed good fit.
“It has nothing to do with ‘I’m a bowler, it’s my job, I’ll do it.’ I was like ‘no’. Again it’s a performance thing, we would like to keep doing it every day and whoever has the best hit ratio will be the one who gets used to it.”
“We started it that way and we never really felt that there would be a bowling session only in the first few matches against Pakistan.”
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