Review of India vs Pakistan Twenty20 Final
By Cricket ~ September 25th, 2007. Filed under: India, Pakistan, Twenty20, cricket.
The match played at Johannesburg will be remembered for a long time in the history of International Cricket. A phenomenal match, where all that won was CRICKET. One cannot point to one single team and appraise it for winning but by far, it was the sport and the spirit of this game that won.
Obviously, team India has shown the ability to keep their cool in the messiest of situations and this capability has given them the opportunity to win the most crucial match in the tournament. Pakistan on the other hand, put in all the necessary efforts to restrict India for a mere 157 and that was only the beginning. Their players, especially Misbah, possessed all the potential to outwit this score and they were only one stroke away from the win. There were so many instances in the match, and all those who have watched the match will agree to this fact, that Pakistan had an upper edge, however hats off to the men in blow for being consistent till the last ball. It was the dismissal of Imran Nazir by Robin Uthappa and the dismissal of Shahid Afridi that brought an advantage to the Indians.
It all began in the last two overs, with Misbah on the ground. MahendraSingh Dhoni was in a dilemma of deciding the bowler for the last over. He confessed in the end that he was confused of assigning this task between Harbhajan Singh and Joginder Sharma. He sensed a confusion in Harbhajan’s last spell and that’s the reason he pronounced the last over to Sharma. The first few balls were merely pulling victory to the green side but it was then that Misbah, an obvious under-pressure batsmen, stroked a shot straight into the hands of Sreesanth, with the latter making no mistakes on the last catch. Firecrackers went up and lo-behold, we had the first Twenty20 champions… INDIA.
