Star Sports to Bring Back Memories of India's March to WT20 Title

Mumbai, April 12: The year 2007 in Indian cricket was filled with drama, anger, introspection leading to some tough decisions which led to a new brand of cricket. India had suffered their worst World Cup campaign in the Caribbean when they failed to go past even the group stages. Passionate cricket fans were left crestfallen, angry, confused and in a sense betrayed.

The selectors handed the reigns of the team to a young hard-hitting finisher Mahendra Singh Dhoni to lead the next team back to the glory days of Indian cricket. The team selected for the 2007 T20 World Cup saw cricket purists in India scoff at the format. But, a new younger, fitter, stronger and hungry Indian team led by their icy cool captain won the hearts of the nation with their bold and aggressive style of play.

Star Sports presents fans a golden opportunity to relive those epic moments from the T20 World Cup. The Men in Blue began the tournament facing new entrants and rank underdogs -- Scotland. But rain played spoilsport leading to the match being called off without a ball being bowled.

India met Pakistan in their first league game: A group match game that will forever be ingrained in the memories of fans was a thrilling encounter between India and Pakistan at the Kingsmead, Durban. The match ended with a bowl out where five bowlers from each side aimed at the stumps. For India, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Robin Uthappa all hit while for Pakistan, Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi all missed the stumps to hand India a thrilling win.

India vs Australia in the second semi-final: India played favourites Australia in the semi-final. After missing the South Africa match due to tendonitis in his left elbow, Yuvraj Singh dominated the semi-final with a superb knock of 70 runs off just 30 balls. Yuvraj smashed the Aussie bowlers to all sides of the park and helped India reach 188 runs. In the end, some tight bowling from Sreesanth and Harbhajan Singh stifled the Australians and India clinched their berth in the first ICC World T20 final.

And then the big final: India vs Pakistan: On September 24, under the leadership of Dhoni, in the first ever T20 World Cup finals in Johannesburg, India won the toss and decided to bat first. India ended their 20 overs with a respectable score of 157 runs for the loss of five wickets. The Pakistani innings never really gained momentum as they lost wickets early but their middle-order batsman Misbah-ul-Haq brought stability and made the game a contest that could have gone either way. The game was balanced on a knife's edge as Misbah backed by strong support from the pavilion took the game all the way into the last over. What would Dhoni do? An experienced Harbhajan had an over left but instead, Dhoni handed over the ball to Joginder Sharma who had bowled a two-wicket final over against Australia in the semi-final.

Was this going to be a stroke of genius or a decision that would cost India the World Cup. As the entire cricketing world held their breath, Joginder started the over with a wide delivery followed by a dot ball. The third ball saw a full toss clobbered by Misbah-ul-Haq over long -off for a six. It was all but over as Pakistan now needed 6 runs of 4 balls. However, in his only lapse of judgment in his otherwise stellar innings, Misbah made the mistake of trying to scoop the ball over Dhoni's head and ended up skying a catch to Sreesanth at short fine-leg. Indian cricket fans all over the world went into delirium as India were World Champions.

Take a trip down the memory lane with Star Sports Network, as they re-telecast India's Glory Run at the 2007 ICC World T20 between April 12 and 17.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 12, 2020 08:27 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).