Bridgetown (Barbados): The last three overs of the T20 World Cup Final at Kensington Oval decided the win for India and the loss for South Africa.
The players here were four: Jasprit Bumrah who finished his spell with an 18th over wicket of Marco Jansen on a ball that Gods grabbed for their mantle-piece; Arshdeep who bowled a beauty of a 19th over, giving away only four runs; Hardik Pandya who clinched the deal with his last over two-wicket haul and, last but not least, the reality-defying hop-out-hop-in catch at the long off boundary by Surya Kumar Yadav, the master of the delightfully ridiculous orchestrations in cricket.
The quartet had their skipper Rohit Sharma, almost kissing the ground on which his warriors walked.
At the end of the 17th over, South Africa were 155-5, needing 22 runs in 18 balls, with pinch-hitters Jansen and Miller in the crease.
Then came the 18th over and Bumrah with his sensational, celestial delivery bowled Jansen sneaking past his pad despite the best defence of the batter. Just two runs and a nerve-recking run mount of 20 in 12 balls started South Africa down.
Arshdeep ran in next – at his best ever – dot, dot 1, 2, 1 dot, an angled delivery not touched, two yorkers, tight line and length keeping Maharaj reined in.
When the 19th over started, Maharaj and Miller still had a doable task 16 runs in six balls. From 30 off 30 to 16 off six the choke had been put on the South African bat by the Indian arm and the bigness of the occasion.
And then Hardik and Surya happened. The first ball was a killer – a full toss sent off to the long off boundary for a definite six by Miller, but then Surya came in between and did the impossible. He sensationally caught Miller in a manner that even the third umpire had to go over and over again to see if the job had actually been accomplished by Yadav.
Here is how it went: Surya hurtled round from wide long-off, clawed down the ball with barely two hands, toppling over the rope as he went, got back inside the rope in a jiffy after lobbing the ball back into the play area, and straight into his own safe as Swiss locker hands.
A boundary by new man in Rabada, two leg-by and a wide later, Hardik took him out on the penultimate ball of the tournament.
Rohit Sharma finally kissed the ground, Pandya collapsed on the stumps, Kohli ran to the middle with a lion king roar, and the rest as they say is golden history.
So, what was going on with the skipper through these ultra-tense moments? Skipper Rohit Sharma got talking to the bowlers as tension reached its limit.
“The talk was very simple – try and make them hit on the other side of the wind because the wind was blowing across the ground quite rapidly… it was quite heavy," Rohit said.
“And then when Bumrah came to bowl that 18th over, as much as we wanted the wicket, we wanted to build that pressure as well on the opposition by bowling dot balls. So, I had to get the fielders in the right place, getting the straighter fielders in, standing in front of the square, because I thought the nature of the wicket didn't allow batters to hit square of the pitch as much."
“It was easy to hit down the ground and with Bumrah's angle, with the reverse swing coming in play a little bit as well, we knew that if we can keep stumps in play as much as possible, the runs will be hard to come by. And if they make a mistake by not getting the bat right where the ball is, there is a chance we can get a wicket as well,” Sharma explained.
“Bumrah nearly knocked Miller off in the first ball, which he missed. And then he got the wicket of Marcus (Jansen) there,” he added.
That over was crucial and then followed up greatly by Arshdeep as well. He gave a four-run over. In the end, it was 16 required.
“The next plan was to just slightly go outside of Miller's arc and not give him any hands. Surya took a brilliant catch there. After that, it was (all about) bowling full to the other batters, not to give them any elevation," he added.
“It was nice to see that Hardik was very calm. No matter how many runs are required, you still have to bowl that over and bowl it well. For him to bowl that over and get that crucial wicket of Miller also was important from the team's standpoint."
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