In the very first of their match in the T20 World Cup 2007, India and Pakistan faced each other and after a lot of up and down and miss, the match reached the last ball where Misbah-ul-haq got himself run out and the match was decided in penalty shoot out of cricket, “ball out”. For Misbah, it was just starting, But from an Indian perspective, all this started with “the legendary coach” of India, Greg Chappell. Very few know that Saurav Ganguly played a major role in bringing him in as coach and at the end of the day, he was the one who suffered most.
Greg Chappell did many things to Indian cricket like throwing out Saurav Ganguly, destroying the career of Irfan Pathan, fighting with some super seniors of a team like Sachin Tendulkar, and experimenting with the world’s best batting line but the worst thing he did to the Indian cricket was 2007 world cup when India crashed out in first round in West Indies. Bangladesh defeated India in the round match but everyone knew it was not Bangladesh but the Australian coach whose experiments outplayed India itself.
But after the 2007 ODI World Cup, a new era of modern cricket was starting in the form of T20 cricket. The First T20 World Cup was scheduled in South Africa and Indian team management was desperate to unite the team. In such a time of chaos, team management turned towards Sachin Tendulkar to take the responsibility of captain but he was Sachin. He knew exactly what was coming to the senior players. Sachin suggested MS Dhoni’s name as the captain and three pillars of the Indian batting line-up, Sachin, Saurav, and Dravid decided to stay out of this fastest form of cricket. In a way, it was one of the best decisions.
Well, it worked in some way and India battled in every match to reach the finals. From match one against Pakistan, India faced some killer situations. It started with the ball out in the first match and from here, the Indians were never sure if they were going to qualify for the Super Eight round. In the Super Eight round, New Zealand slapped a defeat right on the face, and again India was trapped in a “do or die” situation for the next match against England. Well, it charged the Indian side and they fired at the right moment. What Yuvraj Singh did to Broad was just more than a miracle. In the semis, Sreesanth helped India by taking some crucial wickets against the mighty Australian side at crucial moments and then came the big day, the big final. India and Pakistan were locking horns for the trophy.
India faced the first blow just before the match when Virendra Sehwag injured himself and was replaced by Yusuf Pathan. Gautam Gambhir played a brilliant knock on the big day 75 of 54 balls and took India to a defendable total of 157. Well, it was not a big total but the way, India reached in finals against all the odds, it was looking quite defendable. Chase was almost like a Bollywood script. Pakistan lost one opener in the first over of RP Singh but in the very next over of Sreesanth, Imran Nazir went for 21 runs. But like a Bollywood script, Pakistan lost Kamran Akmal in the 3rd over, bowled by RP Singh.
The next batsman was the most experienced batsman of the Pakistani side, Yunus Khan. Imran Nazir and Yunus played some brilliant shots but again something came out of Bollywood script. Imran Nazir was found napping when Yunus Khan tried to steal a single. Robin Uthappa threw the ball at the wrong end and Nazir was well short. That was a real game-changer. Nazir was doing it for Pakistan but now he was gone thanks to his own doing. Captain Shoaib Malik came only to see a loose shot from Yunus. Pakistan lost another. Then came the “savior” Misbah-ul-haq. Before he could do anything, Pakistan lost two crucial wickets, captain Malik and dangerous Afridi. It was 77/6. Pakistan was in trouble and the one who was capable of kicking the trouble was right in the middle, “the savior” Misbah. Yasir Arafat joined him and both of them took the score to 104 when Arafat was bowled by Irfan Pathan in the 16th over.
It was 54 runs in 24 balls. And “the savior” attacked Harbhajan Singh at the right time, with three sixes in the 17th over, and 19 runs in the over. Now it was 35 runs off 18 balls. Shohel Tanveer hit two sixes in the 18th over of Sreesanth, a total of 15 runs in the over. Sreesanth had the last laugh and bowled Tanveer on the last delivery but the job was done. Pakistan needed only 20 runs in 12 balls. RP Singh came for the penultimate over and bowled some wicket-to-wicket balls but couldn’t stop a few singles. On the 5th ball of the over, Umar Gul was bowled, 9 wickets down. But the Bollywood script was still on. Mohammad Asif edged the ball for four runs. Yes, it was all happening.
So, in the last over, Pakistan needed 13 runs with “the savior” on strike. Harbhajan had an over left but MSD had his plan. Dhoni handed over the ball to the least expected one, Jogindar Yadav. The first ball was wide, pressure was on the bowler. Next ball, miss, the pressure was on the batsman, Bollywood script. Next ball, six, like a blow of lightning on the heart of every Indian fan. Misbah, the savior, stepped out, converted a full delivery into a full toss, and straight out of the park. It was done, one more shot and Pakistan’s first-ever victory over India in the World Cup, that too in a final. One nail for all. But, the Bollywood script was still on.
“The savior” had his fortune. Next ball, he tried to scoop and found Sreesanth right under the ball. No one saw Sreesanth until the ball reached his hand safely. India won by 5 runs. And the world saw “the savior” sitting right in the middle of the ground, head down, bat down, nothing but his misfortune in his hand.