The Indian Cricket Board assembled a team of youngsters and picked a very young Mahendra Singh. Dhoni To lead the pack.
Little did anyone know that this inaugural tournament would change cricket forever.
Here we look at the top five performances of Team India in the T20 World Cup over the years:
2007 – India vs Pakistan At Kingsmead, Durban: India won by a bowl out
Any match between India and Pakistan is going to generate interest and give goosebumps to fans across the world. This match, on 14 September, was effectively India’s first in the tournament as their previous match against Scotland was washed out after the toss.
Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik After winning the toss, India were asked to bat first. Mohammad Asif took 4 wickets, but Robin Uthappa’s half-century and Dhoni’s 33 made India a respectable 141/9.
Bowling the final over, Ajit Agarkar along with Misbah-ul-Haq conceded 17 runs in Pakistan’s run chase. With 12 runs needed from 6 balls, Sreesanth was handed the ball. Misbah hit two fours in the second and fourth balls. It all boiled down to just one run off two balls. Misbah fails to add the last delivery. With a run needed off the last ball, Misbah hits it towards cover and runs for a run but fails to beat Yuvraj SinghThrow in the hands of Sreesanth, who whips the bails in a jiffy to run out Misbah. The tie match was then decided by a bowl out.
This is where Dhoni’s cricketing prowess came to the fore among the bowlers of his choice. he chose Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Uthappa were out to bowl. Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi Pakistan was selected.
Sehwag, Harbhajan and Uthappa all hit the stumps while Arafat, Gul and Afridi all missed. India won the bowling 3–0 and maintained their all-time winning record in the World Cup against Pakistan. Interestingly, Team India had practiced ball out keeping one such incident in mind.
2007 – India v England at Kingsmead, Durban: India won by 18 runs
It is said that a sleeping lion should never be awakened. The same is true for some players. Sometimes sledging them backfires and it wakes up a fierce competitor in them. The end result is sometimes something that the opposition and the whole world will always remember.
This is what happened when India and England met for the first time on 19 September 2007 in a T20 International match at Kingsmead, Durban. It is a date recorded in cricket history, when Yuvraj Singh hit Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over in the first edition of the ICC World Twenty20. This feat made him the second man to hit six sixes in an over in international cricket at that time.
Batting first, India started with 136 runs with Gautam Gambhir (58) and Virender Sehwag (68). But India then lost three wickets in three overs and made 155/3 when Yuvraj walked out to join his captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni at the crease in the 17th over.
Andrew Flintoff bowled the 18th over of the Indian innings and Yuvraj hit him for two consecutive fours. Going back to his fielding position after his over, Flintoff said something to Yuvraj that clearly angered the Indian left-hander. A few words were exchanged between the two and the umpire had to intervene to calm the matter.
But it was a very young Stuart Broad who bore the brunt of the wrath of the Crown Prince. The first ball of the 19th over hit the crowd between long-on and mid-wicket, the second hit the backward square leg fence, the third ball hit the middle of the bat and flew over the extra cover boundary.
A clearly shaken Broad then switches the wicket to goal and bowls a juicy wide full toss which is bowled by Yuvraj to the backward point fence. Yuvraj went down on one knee and slammed the fifth ball over the mid-wicket fence and the last delivery of the over was sent over wide mid-on into the wandering crowd.
Thanks to the attack, Yuvraj completed his fifty in just 12 balls – the fastest T20 fifty – a world record that still holds his name. Yuvraj became the first batsman to hit six sixes in T20 cricket, second in international cricket (after Herschelle Gibbs) and fourth in senior level cricket (after Gary Sobers and Ravi Shastri in domestic games).
Yuvraj hit another six off Flintoff in the next over and was then dismissed for 58 in just 16 balls – an innings that included 3 fours and 7 sixes. India won the match by 18 runs and Yuvraj was adjudged man of the match.
2007 Final – India vs Pakistan at Kingsmead, Durban: India won by five runs
The date 24 September 2007 is inscribed in gold in Indian cricket history. That day, at The Wanderers in Johannesburg, India defeated Pakistan by five runs to win the first ICC World Twenty20. Gautam Gambhir was the star with the bat for India, scoring 75 off 54 balls, scoring a total of 157/5 against a spirited Pakistan performance in the field, but Rohit SharmaHis unbeaten knock of 30 runs in 16 balls proved to be an important cameo.
RP Singh started with the wickets of Mohammad Hafeez and Kamran Akmal, and Irfan Pathan was excellent with figures of 3/16 in his quota as India applied the squeeze. Once again it was Misbah-ul-Haq who was left with the task of leading Pakistan to an impossible victory, needing 54 off 24 balls and three wickets in hand. Around. After hitting Harbhajan Singh for three sixes in the 17th over, Misbah looked to be at his best till the last over.
MS Dhoni, after much thought, reposed faith in Joginder Sharma in the last six balls, which required 13 runs for Pakistan. The first ball was wide; Second full toss which was adjourned by Misbah for six runs. The Pakistani fans on the ground rejoiced, leaving Indian supporters in a tizzy. Just then Misbah went across his stumps to try to scoop Joginder to fine leg, only to miss the shot and find Sreesanth lurking at short fine leg. Second Sreesanth took the catch, the Wanderers blast.
Irfan, who took three wickets, was adjudged man of the match. Joginder never played another match for India.
2016 – India vs Australia in Mohali: India won by 6 wickets
Virat Kohli has played innumerable match-winning knocks in his illustrious career so far and that 82 not out against Australia is right there. The Mohali crowd witnessed a run-fest on 27 March as Australia, batting first, posted 160/6 in their 20 overs.
India were 94/4 in 14 overs when Dhoni moved to join Kohli (35*) at the crease. Everyone expected Dhoni to go ballistic with the bat, but the then Indian captain played second fiddle for Kohli that day, which looked like he was batting ‘in the zone’. He was so focused on the task that when he reached the half-century in the 17th over, Kohli did not even lift his bat. What was remarkable during that unbeaten partnership between the two was their incredible understanding when running between the wickets. Quick singles were taken and singles were turned into two at an incredible speed.
With 39 runs needed from the last three overs, Kohli chose to target James Faulkner and hit the Aussies for two fours and a six in the first three balls. No shot seemed impossible for Kohli that day, pulling a short-pitched delivery from the front foot across the square, digging yorkers and opening the face of the bat to take them past the backward point fence, He was exiting the crease and hitting short lengths through the line, timing just enough that the ball was going over the fence.
With 20 needed in the last two overs, Kohli hit four fours off Nathan Coulter-Nile to snatch the match from Australia. Dhoni (18*) scored the winning run in the final over by Faulkner amidst a crowd chanting Kohli’s name, who played with the Australian bowling in his 51-ball 82* with 2 sixes and 9 fours in an exhibition of batting masterclass Was. .
2016 – India vs Bangladesh in Bengaluru: India won by 1 run
Bangladesh almost won it until Mahendra Singh Dhoni got him out and overtook him. Chasing a target of 147, Bangladesh were well into their World T20 Group 2 clash at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on March 23. It boiled down to the last over and Hardik Pandya was handed the responsibility of defending 10 runs. Bangladesh were 136-6 after 19 overs and needed eleven runs to win the match.
Mahmudullah scored a single off the first ball to give strike to Mushfiqur Rahim, who hit a four off the next two deliveries and also clenched his fist in celebration after the second boundary. But Rahim went for a brilliant shot on the next ball and was caught at deep mid-wicket. Shikhar Dhawan. With two runs needed off two balls, Mahmudullah came on strike as the ball was in the air while the batsmen had crossed. Dhoni replaced Dhawan as India’s best fielder Ravindra Jadeja At deep mid wicket. And Mahmudullah, as if on cue, hits the next ball over deep mid-wicket, Jadeja rushes in and takes a superb diving catch.
Needing two runs off the last ball, Bangladesh had new batsmen Shuvagata Hom and Mustafizur Rahman in the middle. With elegance on strike, Dhoni removes the glove from his right hand, just in case. Pandya bowls a short outside off but Shuvagata fails to connect, Dhoni collects the ball and instead of throwing, runs towards the stumps, Mustafizur runs through the non-striker’s hand. But Mustafizur could not overtake Dhoni and fell below the crease as Dhoni hit the stumps with the ball in his right hand to keep India’s campaign alive in the tournament with a one-run victory.
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