- 3/16 against Pakistan at Johannesburg in T20I Final in 2007
The year 2007 saw ICC launch the T20I World Cup which was hosted by South Africa. It was a new experience for all the competing teams, playing in such an iconic tournament.
Though all the teams had the experience of playing in the 50-over World Cup, this was something different.
The final encounter for the coveted trophy was played between the arch-rivals, India and Pakistan, on 24th September 2007, at The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, to a packed audience.
Winning the toss and electing to bat, Dhoni-lead India, put up 157 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs. This was backed by a spirited batting displayed by Gautam Gambhir (75, 76m, 54b, 8*4, 2*6), and an unbeaten 30* runs off 16 deliveries with 2 fours and a six by Rohit Sharma.
Chasing 158 runs for a win, Pakistan had scored 145 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in 19 overs and needed 12 runs in the last over. Thinking ‘out of the box’, the Indian skipper brought on the relatively inexperienced medium pacer, Joginder Sharma, to bowl the final over of the match.
Joginder, giving away 7 runs (including one wide) in 2 deliveries, managed to keep his nerves and bowled the third, a full length on the stumps to Misbah-ul-Haq, who tried to scoop the ball over a short fine leg. He miscued and the ball ballooned high in the air as a sprinting Sreesanth, made no mistake and held on to the catch.
India went on to win the match by 5 runs and won the trophy also.
Earlier while RP Singh provided the initial breakthrough and Joginder Sharma joined in by removing Younis Khan (24), Irfan Pathan picked up the wickets of Shoaib Malik (8), Shaheed Afridi (0) and Yaseer Arafat (15).
Finally, Irfan returned with the best bowling analysis of 4-0-16-3.
While one sibling, Yusuf Pathan, made his T20I debut in the match, the other sibling, Irfan Pathan was awarded the Player of the Match.
