Finally, team India achieved its long-cherished goal of victory in the finals of the International Cricket Council (ICC) global tournament T20 World Cup on 29 June, 2024 in Kingston Oval-Barbados, West Indies. The last ICC trophy, the Champions Trophy, was won by India in 2013 and ever since that point of time it could not repeat the feat in any other international event it took part in. Though the Team India under the leadership of all the three super giants, M.S.Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, fought a number of semi-finals and finals of the international cricket tournaments yet it missed the opportunity to cross the line continuously for more than a decade.
The latest was in November 2023 when Team India despite remaining unbeaten in eleven games of the tournament lost the finals against Australia in the ODI World Cup tournament held in India. Ironically, India beat Australia in the Group stages comprehensively but ultimately lost in the finals against everyone’s belief and wishes. The way Team India kept losing in the semi-finals and finals of the major world tournaments like ODI World Cup, Test Championship, T20 World Cup and the Champions Trophy tournaments for the last ten years, it earned the bad band of “Chokers of the day” due to consistent failures at the knockout stages.
Over the last two decades, the Team India played wonderful cricket throughout in all formats of the game and raised its success rate from a progressive 50 per cent to a whopping 75 per cent. India’s contribution to the game of cricket at national and international level is overwhelming and also inspiring. However, it missed the opportunity to convert its hard work, great game acumen, amazing skill and unimaginable commitment into a perfect success at the crucial knockout levels. It had become more a psychological and temperamental issue than a normal game of cricket for the team and also for the whole Indian nation following Team India so closely with hope, affection and good wishes all along.
Whether it is the long struggle of ten years to win the ICC trophy or the great game of nerves in the final match on June 29, 2024, Team India led by Rohit Sharma & Virat Kohli exhibited an exemplary character. They left a number of lessons to be learnt from the match that ultimately gave them the cup. It would be in the fitness of things to summarise the crucial moments of the match to reach the moral of the story.
Team India played well in the first innings and put up a formidable competitive score of 176 on the board. When South Africa joined the chase in the second innings to get 177, India made a nice start and kept things in their hands during the first five hours. It was like the proverbial dictums coming true such as “well begun is half done” or “first impression is the last impression”. However, South Africa, also an unbeaten team in the tournament till the final match, slowly and steadily brought the match into their firm grip in the next ten overs. The fifteenth over was a complete disaster for Team India which fetched 22 runs for SA and brought the asking rate down to run-a-ball equation.
With five overs to go, South Africa was simply unstoppable. Heinrich Klaasen, one of the big hitters in the game, threatened to throw off decades of painful big-match history for his team with a hail of sixes. He along with equally strong hitter David Miller clubbed 38 runs off the two previous overs, and with six wickets in hand, South Africa needed only a run-a-ball off the last 30 balls.
Rohit Sharma took a bit of time and changed his strategy and went for the best bowler in the world, when he would have otherwise saved Jaspreet Bumrah for later overs. Bumrah didn’t quite break the partnership, the batters never daring to take him on. But he did break Klaasen and Miller’s stride. They scrambled only four runs off that over. He compelled the batters by his super accurate bowling to wait for the next bowler. This was a classic turning point in the match which raised doubts in the minds of the otherwise hurricane pair of batsmen at the crease.
But the most severe blow came at the start of the 17th over. Taking advantage of the break in the momentum of SA, the flow of the game was further slowed due to an apparent knee complaint for Rishabh Pant. Those three to four minutes were very crucial to change the rhythm of the game. Mind games are always a part of the game and have been in vogue in all the games and particularly in football and badminton where breaks are enforced by the players to slow down their opponents’ charge. Immediately, Hardik took a start and bowled a wide line outside off and took the edge of Klaasen who didn’t move from his position, Pant snaffling the chance gleefully. Still, Miller was there, though he couldn’t get a boundary away off the rest of that over.
Then Bumrah came again, bowled several stunners just unplayable in his last over of yet another tournament he dominated. With one of those magic balls, a wicked in-seamer, he burst through the defences of the last recognised South African batsman Marco Jansen, and brought out his leg stump. With Keshav Maharaj now in the middle, their batting line-up notably short, and 20 needed off 12 balls, South Africa were for the first time since the early overs of the chase, in deep trouble keeping in view that India had made the dent required. Arshdeep Singh, the largest wicket-taker of the tournament, delivered a masterclass-controlled 19th over, off which South Africa could muster only four. This over brought South Africa virtually on their knees.
The dream-killing hammering came next. Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya had a bit of long discussion and genuinely so. It was the 20th crucial and the last over to be bowled and thus the history was in making. With 16 needed off the final six balls, bowled by Hardik, Miller tried to lift the first ball, a wide full toss, over the straight boundary. But he didn’t connect it perfectly, and Surya Kumar Yadav, running full tilt along the rope, his feet only centimetres inside, caught the ball, popped it up as he briefly stepped over the boundary, then completed the running catch as he jumped back into the field, forcing deafening wild jubilation in the stands, and huge celebrations from the Indian players.
South African batters weren’t able to get Hardik away, aside from a single outside edge that went for four. Adding further misery to the situation, he lured K.Rabbada to go for a big hit only to go into the safe hands of SKY again at the long on. Then the last ball of the match was only a formality and when Hardik completed the seven-run win for India, the bowler sank to his knees in relief. It was all over and India had made the history.
The last five overs were a defining moment of the match in which Team India yet again realised the proverbial message: “All is well that ends well”. They also sent a bigger message which is the moral of the story for all and sundry, in every field and format i.e. “Never die before death”. There was a flood of messages put on the social and digital media just after the fifteenth over of the second innings that wrote off Team India. All insane kind of posts were getting circulated lambasting Indian players, but the calm and composure mixed with piles of experiences of the last successes and failures kept Rohit Sharma and his team dedicated to the mission in hand. And they realized it only due to their complete focus, commitment and talent for which they deserve all kudos and blessings.
It was indeed a euphoric atmosphere thereafter for the Indian fans, the cricket lovers and the nationalistic Indians everywhere throughout the globe. Sarcastically speaking, however, a band of people argued after the match that it was a “moral victory” for South Africa since they restricted India to 176 while Rohit Sharma, the captain of the Team had been talking about getting 200. They also said that it was the “crutches” of Hardik Pandya and Surya Kumar Yadav in the last over that gave the semblance of victory to the captain of Team India. Hence, this section of the crowd desisted in congratulating Team India and its captain who in their opinion lost the “moral ground” to claim victory.
In cricket or in politics or in any other field, such a crowd always take their chance to play the ‘prophet of doom’. Some of them even are debating the catch of Surya Kumar Yadav and the time-out taken by Rishabh Pant at the critical stage of the game. They need to learn that these are part of the game anywhere and everywhere and are called as the smartness of the players playing the game.
Team India undoubtedly sent a great message through their unbeaten record in the tournament i.e. the battle-hardened, skilful and experienced have always a superior edge and an upper hand. They surely learnt a lot of lessons from their failures and successes too. This all blended with ‘never say die’ approach had the last laugh for Team India; and this lesson is surely for everyone to imbibe……!
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