The World T20 Final

As I start this sentence, its been about 30 seconds since Sreesanth picked up that catch to dismiss the man who ensured hope for Pakistan all the way through – Misbah-ul-Haq. The finish bared a little resemblance to the ODI World Cup Final 2007. It was a bit of a farce. There was absolutely no necessity whatsoever for that very dim-witted shot. I write this as the other members of the Indian team form a heap over Virender Sehwag.

Coming back to the dim-witted shot, I cannot understand why he did that. Misbah had shown great calmness thought the innings. But that last reckless shot was inexplicable. He needed six of four balls, which meant that even a four of that ball would have done. Furthermore, Joginder Sharma was nowhere near his delivery stride when Misbah was in position to play the shot. But, Joginder did not capitalise and was lucky enough to get the wicket.

The man who took the catch at short fine leg was Sreesanth. He was absolutely disappointing today – with the bowling at least. Initially, he gave far too much width to the batsmen and enabled the in-form Imran Nazir to capitalise by playing some powerful cut shots through the off side.

One thing good Sreesanth did today was for the marketing of the T20 tournament. He came back in the 18^th over to give 15 runs after Harbhajan Singh had made his contribution by giving 19 runs in his over. What’s more, it was three sixes and a wide.

This bowling is what resulted in Pakistan coming so close to the trophy. Already, before the Pakistani onslaught in overs 16 and 17, the match had swung to what we thought was every possible direction. But, Pakistan ensured that the Pakistanis watched till the last ball of the match. Pakistan played very well, that’s why they came as close as they did. Unfortunately for them India played just that little bit better.

As Irfan Pathan collects his man of the match award, it has to be mentioned that his performance was commendable. He bowled very efficiently, mixing up the variations beautifully and bowling slower ones very competently. R.P.Singh also has had a good tournament.

Pakistan have played well right through the tournament. They lost just two matches in the whole tournament, both very close ones; the first as close as can be. Man of the series Shahid Afridi played well, bowling competently.

On the other hand, India lost just one, but still were not as impressive as Pakistan. Ultimately, fortunately for India and unfortunately for Pakistan, India played better in the final. The man for India was Yuvraj Singh. It was nice to see that all the youngsters, Uthappa, Joginder Sharma, Yusuf Pathan and many more.

The point is, India are the first Twenty20 world champions. This was after they performed very badly in the ODI World Cup 2007.

The Twenty20 championship was also in sharp contrast to the ODI World Cup as it was a great success as a tournament with a house full final and probably a house full semi final as well.

Too many things to think about, too many things to say.-BS

Cricket Opinions congratulates India on its victory. Due to technical difficulties, this article written immediately after the finals could not be published on time.