India defeated South Africa in a nail-biting contest held at the Kensington Oval in Barbados to win their second ever ICC Men’s T20 World Cup title. In a see-saw affair with the match wildly swinging from one camp to another, India bowlers held their nerves and overcame a Heinrich Klaasen blitz in the middle overs to successfully defend 177 and also end their 11-year-long wait for an ICC title.
Chasing 177, South Africa lost the plot despite being in a dominant position at one stage as they were limited to 168/8 in 20 overs with India eking out an eight-win win.
India were dominant throughout the competition, storming into the final unbeaten with wins over the likes of Pakistan, Australia, Bangladesh among others. South Africa won all their matches en rout to the final too but they were tested on multiple occasions forcing them to find a way out of trouble.
On Saturday, they lost the coin toss and then Virat Kohli led a blazing start with three boundaries in the first over of the match, bowled by Marco Jansen. Captain Rohit then peeled off a couple of fours off Keshav Maharaj.
And South Africa found a way back from it. Rohit was caught while sweeping as was Rishabh Pant in the same over of Maharaj. Suryakumar Yadav pulled and found a fielder and soon India were left struggling at 34/3.
Virat Kohli then adopted cautious approach and that he was able to do so was thanks to Axar Patel’s enterprising innings as India recovered to post 176/7 in 20 overs.
Axar struck 47 off 31 and Kohli, as Rohit and Rahul Dravid predicted, saved his best for the big game as he top-scored with 76 off 59 to help India with a competitive total.
Axar was run out in an unfortunate manner, completely against the run of play, which brought about an end to his 72-run partnership off 54 balls with Kohli. Kohli did slow down considerably in the middle overs to bring up his first 50 off the tournament with 48 balls.
Rohit Sharma (9) had no hesitation in batting first at Kensington Oval where the pitch has not been the easiest to bat on through the competition.
The Indian captain, coming from two back to back match winning efforts, departed early after collecting couple of consecutive fours off Keshav Maharaj in the second over of the game.
Maharaj responded well by having Rohit caught at square leg as the batter went for a sweep. Rohit and incoming batter Rishabh Pant both fell to the sweep shot.
The tension in the Indian camp increased when Suryakumar Yadav, who has also been in good touch like Rohit, was caught at fine-leg after not getting enough from his pick up shot off Rabada, leaving India with three down inside the powerplay.
At 45 for three in six overs, it was the slowest powerplay for India in the Caribbean leg.
Watching wickets tumble at the other end, Kohli, who hit three elegant boundaries off Marco Jansen in opening over of the final, shifted gears during the middle overs and let Axar come up with an odd boundary.
Such was the nature of Kohli’s knock that his first big hit after the powerplay, a straight six off Rabada, came in the 18th over
Axar, on the other hand, potentially played the innings of his T20 career and negotiated the South African spinners effectively, collecting a six each from Aiden Markram, Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi. However, the highlight of his special knock was the straight six through the line off Rabada.
Between 7-15 overs, India mustered 72 with the loss of Axar who fell to a direct hit from keeper Qunton de Kock at the non striker’s end. Kohli was pushing for a single off a rising ball from Rabada and de Kock with a clean one handed pick up, hit the bulls eye.
Shivam Dube (27 off 16), who came into the middle before the start of death overs, delivered a few timely blows to prop up the total.
Kohli also dropped anchor to smash a couple of sixes in the last five overs from which India collected 58 runs with the loss of three wickets.
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