16 years back in the year 2007, this day was recorded as one of the most memorable days in the history of Indian cricket. MS Dhoni-led young Indian team stunned everyone and emerged as the first-ever T20 World Cup Champions after defeating the arch-rivals, Pakistan in the final of the inaugural edition of the tournament.
Team India and Indian cricketers achieved some amazing feats in the group stage and super-8 stage of the tournament. It includes some close and thrilling wins, alongside individual achievements from the Indian cricketers throughout the tournament.
With said that, here we’ll have a look at the three major highlights for Team India in the T20 World Cup 2007.
Bowl-Out victory against Pakistan in the group stage
India and Pakistan locked horns first time in the T20 World Cup 2007 in the group stage; the men in green skipper Shoaib Malik won the toss and asked India to bat first. Thanks to Robin Uthappa’s half-century of 50 runs, alongside wicketkeeper-skipper MS Dhoni’s 33 runs, helped India somehow to reach a total of 141 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in the allotted 20 overs.
While chasing the target, Pakistan also got restricted to the same score of 141 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in the entire 20 overs courtesy of Misbah-ul-Haq’s 53-run knock. Later, the result of the match was decided in a bowl-out on the stumps, similar to the penalty shootout in a football match. Finally, India managed to hit all the bowls at the stumps, on the other hand, Pakistan failed to hit even one ball at the stumps; eventually, India won the match by 3-0 in bowl-out.
Yuvraj Singh’s Six Sixes against England in the super-8 stage
India were locking horns in the all-important clash against England in the super-8 match to get the momentum in their run to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2007. India won the toss and decided to bat first; the opening pair of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag built a massive partnership of 136 runs for the first wicket.
But the highlight of this match and the entire T20 World Cup 2007 was something that came in the 19th over of this match; it happened when Yuvraj Singh indulged in a heated argument with star England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff; subsequently, Yuvraj took his revenge and England pacer Stuart Broad happened to be on the receiving end.
Yuvraj smashed six consecutive sixes on the six balls in the 19th over, which is still a record in the history of the T20 World Cup; he also recorded the fastest half-century of the T20I format off just 12 balls, which is still unbreakable.
Joginder Sharma’s last over against Pakistan in the final
India were looking on the backfoot when ruthless Misbah was guiding Pakistan to a win in the summit clash of the T20 World Cup 2007. Pakistan were 144 runs for the 9 wickets in 19 overs and they required 13 runs off the last over. Indian skipper MS Dhoni was worried as senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was smashed badly by Misbah-ul-Haq in the 18th over.
So, he decided to play a gamble and invested his trust in the young pacer Joginder Sharma for the last over. Joginder started the over long wide on the first ball and now the score was 12 runs required off 6 balls. He bowled the next ball a short of a good length and quite a bit outside the off stump which ended as a dot ball. The next ball came as an outside the off stump and Misbah lined it up and smashed down the ground in a baseball style for a massive six. Now, Pakistan needed only 6 runs off the last 4 balls and they were heading to the win easily.
But it was the third ball of the over when Misbah-ul-Haq happened to do a blunder of his life which he must be regretting even after 16 years. He played a scoop shot over short fine-leg which eventually landed in the hands of S Sreesanth and resulted in India becoming the champions of the first-ever T20 World Cup 2023.