24th September, the height of cricket romanticism of an Indian cricket fan
Indian team with T20 World Cup 2007 (PC : Twitter)
24th September 2007, a day that Indian cricket fans will hardly forget. India and Pakistan were facing off against each other in the finals of the first ever T20 World Cup at Johannesburg, South Africa.
India won the toss in the all important match and decided to bat first. Led by Gautam Gambhir’s brilliant 75 off 54 India managed to post a total of 157 runs in their 20 overs.
Now, a total of 157 in 20 overs in the finals of a mega event, but no one was sure how good has India done. There was little idea about the format back then and all as a fan we could do was pray hard for the team.
The Pakistan team began their chase and got off to a flying start as Imran Nazir was in a mood to murder thge Indian bowlers. It was a brilliant fielding effort from Robin Uthappa at mid off which saw the back of Nazir and India started to crawl back into the competition.
Soon, Pakistan was left reeling at 78 for 6 at the end of the 12th over and India was crawling towards an easy win. But Misbah-ul-Haq had other plans. He held one end and kept fighting for his nation.
Misbah’s fight kept Pakistan in the competition and at the start of the 19th over they were positioned at 145 for 9 needing 13 runs to win the first ever T20 World Cup.
MSD’s strategic acumen
Joginder Sharma with the final over (PC: Twitter)
India was in a dilemma with whom to give the last over of the match. The options for MS Dhoni were off spin bowler Harbhajan Singh and the medium pacer Joginder Sharma.
With the experience under his bank the general feeling was Harbhajan will be bowling the last over. But Bhajji was taken to the cleaners in the last over bowled by Misbah-ul-Haq as he picked up 19 runs of that over.
The match up being in favour of Misbah, MSD decided to give the final over to Joginder Sharma. Now, as a fan who has been following cricket for a few years by then, Sharma was a big gamble. His general trend was to be expensive in his spells and there was little hope that he would survive the pressure.
The first ball of the final over and Joginder Sharma bowled a wide. The equation was 12 runs from 6 balls. Come the second legal delivery of the over Joginder bowled a juicy full-toss which Misbah lofted over long-off for a maximum. The target now was 6 runs off 4 balls and the match looked over for India.
The next ball was a full length delivery on the off and middle, which Misbah decided to scoop over fine leg. The ball was in the air for sometime and the whole of India felt that it was a six.
The Moment
Sreesanth taking Misbah's catch (PC: Twitter)
But it was the magical voice of Ravi Shastri which brought us back to our senses- “In the air… Sreesanth…takes it. Unbelievable scenes at the bullring…” The thrill, the excitement and the unparalleled euphoria to be the first ever champions of the new format cannot be described in words.
The Indian team that went into the tournament was young, inexperienced and there was little hope that they would come back with the trophy. But they played as a unit and it was a memorable journey that they took along with their fans. From the ‘bowl out’ in the first match of the tournament to the six sixes of Yuvraj against England to that final catch of Sreesanth, it will be etched forever in the memory of Indian fans who have witnessed it.
After a disastrous 50 over World Cup the same year, it was as if a rejuvenation of Indian cricket. While the whole team should be credited for the win, the tournament gave us glimpses of a man in young MS Dhoni, who would later literally define coolness under pressure.
It is thrilling to think that 15 years have passed after that. Each ball of that match is still fresh in the memories of millions of Indian cricket fans. In the end cheers to that young Indian team that probably started the rebirth of cricket in the nation where plenty of more such memorable wins in the finals came along the way.
 "Probuddha Bhattacharjee")
