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They choked! Again! At the last hurdle, just the wrong time!
At just the right time, struggling star batsman Virat Kohli found his form to help 2007 Champions India sneak past South Africa by seven runs at Kensington Oval in Barbados on Saturday.
Photo: ICC/ Getty
The former skipper’s carefully constructed 76 (59 balls, 2×6, 6×4) pushed India to 176. The Proteas could only manage 169—despite needing only 28 off the last 24 balls with six wickets in hand!
Prior to the start of the game, the Indian skipper urged his team to remain calm and composed in their quest for a second ICC Men’s T20 World Cup title.
“We’ve been very calm as a team,” he had said after Thursday’s emphatic 68-run semifinal win over England in Guyana. “We do understand the occasion (in the final) but for us, it’s important to keep calm.”
And when the middle order looked like claiming their first title for Aidan Markram’s unbeaten-before-today South Africa, they were denied by the skill and composure of Rohit Sharma’s calm team.
Photo: ICC/ Getty
Also contributing was the quick thinking of Suryakumar Yadav, who completed a magnificent catch on the boundary. And the loss of composure by the seemingly hyper South Africans, arguably put off their game by the fear of winning.
Markram, who had made no public call for calm and composure, stopped short of using the C-word. But he admitted that it had been his team’s game to lose.
“We never got comfortable,” said Markram. “Things happened quickly at the back end but we got into a great position to prove we were worthy finalists.”
“[I am] gutted for the time being but incredibly proud… It was a chaseable total; we batted well, came down to the wire. Gutted not to get over the line.”
But it was not enough to lead his team to victory.
Photo: ICC/ Getty
Sharma attributed his team’s success to “a lot of behind the scenes [work], not what we did today.”
It was, he said, “a perfect example [that] guys understand when the pressure is on what needs to be done.”
At 34 for 3 in the fifth over, it was a big ask. Not for Kohli. As he has often done on the big occasion, King Kohli delivered.
Photo: ICC/ Getty
“No one was in doubt about the form of Virat,” Sharma said after the game, “on top of his game for the last 15 years. Come the big occasion, big players stand up. Crucial to hold that end for the others to play around him… He did that perfectly.”
With India opting to bat, Man-of-the-Match Kohli already announced his return to form with three blistering fours in the first over. But the rapid dismissals of Sharma and Pant, largely responsible for Thursday’s semifinal win, and then 3600-scorer Yadav, called for caution.
With Axar Patel for company, Kohli coaxed run by slow run out of the tight South African bowling, encouraging Axar (47, 31b, 4×6, 1×4) to go for broke whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Photo: ICC/ Getty
Wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock ended the flourishing partnership with a moment of brilliance.
He ran to his left from behind the stumps, rapidly collected the ball and found Patel, more concerned about Kohli’s safety, just short with his direct hit at the bowler’s end. That made the score 106 for 4 in the 14th over and might have forced an Indian adjustment. It did not.
New batsman Shivam Dube (16b, 1×6, 3×4) clouted Marco Jansen and Shamsi over and to the boundary and Kohli smashed a six and a four off Rabada. Seventy came off the remaining six-and-a-half overs and 57 off the next five, when Kohli finally fell.
Photo: ICC/ Getty
When South Africa batted, Heinrich Klaasen (52, 27b, 5×6, 2×4) and Tristan Stubbs (31, 21b, 1 x6) 3×4) took the game away from India. And de Kock helped keep the tempo up, reducing the deficit to 70 after Stubbs left, bowled by Axar with just over 100 more needed for victory.
Klaasen was particularly severe on the “gun spinners” (as Rohit described Axar (1/49) and Kuldeep Yadav (0/45) after the England game). But Rohit held his quicks back.
Bumrah had bowled Hendricks early and Arshdeep induced an edge from Markram for Pant to make it 12 for 2. But the skipper held him back.
Photo: ICC/ Getty
At 106 for 4, de Kock went, Arshdeep inducing the aerial pull which Kuldeep Yadav snaffled at long-leg.
Rohit eventually went back to Hardik for the 17th over. The first ball was wide of a second set of stumps. Klaasen—his concentration perhaps broken by a longish delay for Pant to get attention on a dinky knee—chased it.
Pant did the rest, ending a fifth wicket stand with David Miller worth 45 in just four overs.
Photo: ICC/ Getty
Belatedly, Rohit called up Bumrah for his last over, the 18th. He conceded only two runs. And bowled Jansen with the fourth ball..
In the 19th, Miller and Keshav Maharaj could get only four off Arshdeep. That left the Proteas needing 16 off the last over.
Going for broke, Miller swung Hardik’s first ball into the sky at wide long-off. Racing to his left mere millimetres inside the boundary cushion, Sky clung onto the ball, lobbed it into the air inside the cushions, touched down outside, leapt into the air and, having reclaimed the ball in mid-air, landed safely inside the cushions once more.
Photo: ICC/ Getty
It would have been a fitting end to a tournament that had provided satisfaction and thrills galore. But with eight still needed off the last two balls, Rabada too tried to clear Sky on the boundary.
He too failed. A jubilant Sky swallowed the catch but did not choke on it.
The Proteas had done that.
Photo: ICC/ Getty
Summarised scores
Toss: India
India: 176 for 7 (20 overs) (Virat Kohli 76, Axar Patel 47, Shivam Dube 27; Keshav Maharaj 2/23, Anrich Nortje 2/26)
South Africa: 169 for 8 (20 overs) (Heinrich Klaasen 52, Quinton de Kock 39, Tristan Stubbs 31, David Miller 21; Hardik Pandya 3/20, Jasprit Bumrah 2/18, Arshdeep Singh 2/20)
Player-of-the-Match: Virat Kohli
Player-of-the-series: Jasprit Bumrah
Result: India win by 7 runs, claim second ICC T20 World Cup title.
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