Near the end of a most thrilling T20 World Cup final, there were three Indian players under intense pressure. Hardik Pandya, the man the nation had booed relentlessly for a couple of IPL months; lodestar Jasprit Bumrah, who had to again show why he is the greatest T20 bowler ever; and Arshdeep Singh, who the team trusted more than the world. Also dealing with nerves was South Africa, a team that had to get 26 runs from 24 balls with six wickets in hand but whose past meant the game was far from over.
From the moment Hardik slipped in a crafty slower one well outside off to dismiss the most nerveless South African on view on the day Heinrich Klassen and gave away just four runs, the pendulum swung dramatically.
Next over, Jasprit Bumrah not only took out Marco Jansen, the last man who could have eased the pressure on David Miller but gave away just two runs.
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When the equation read 19 from the final two overs, Arshdeep eked out only four runs. And it was back on Pandya to finish what he started and it still might not have happened if not for the near-impossible-to-pull-off catch under pressure: a dream effort from Suryakumar Yadav. Miller had bashed a full toss high and it seemed to be sinking into the sight screen when Suryakumar materialised from nowhere, tiptoed near the boundary ropes, pouched the ball, popped it up gently, stepped beyond the boundary before stepping back to complete a most incredible catch one could imagine to see in such a circumstance.
Hardik sealed the game, then, and broke down. So did the others.
Rohit Sharma slipped into the privacy of the dressing room and emerged wiping his tears. On the field, Rahul Dravid, the former captain who oversaw India’s most humiliating world cup campaign in 2007 in the same Caribbean region and who now had his redemption song, too was left with a damp face.
Hardik would talk about his turbulent last six months — the time in which he replaced Rohit as Mumbai Indian captain and got trolled both on and off the field for the team’s failure and personal form. “It is very emotional, something was not clicking (for me), but this was something the whole nation wanted. Special for me after my six months, I haven’t spoken a word, things have been unfair, but I knew there’d be a time I could shine,” he said. Soon Rohit would surprise both the TV anchor and Hardik by sneaking into the frame and planting a kiss on India’s last-action hero.
Rohit would share what the win means to the team, more so after the heart-breaking loss to Australia in the 50-over World Cup last year. Like in this T20 World Cup, they were undefeated then, too, but here they went on to win the game that truly matters. “A lot of high-pressure games, and we’ve been on the wrong side of it. Guys understand when the pressure is on what needs to be done, We stuck together with backs to the wall…” he would say choking on his words.
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Another old pro, Virat Kohli, the man whose bat lay silent all tournament before he guided it ever so calmly on the biggest day, was also finding it tough to hold back his tears. In the Indian innings, he held the fort after early wickets and scored 76 from 59 balls. He would also announce his T20 retirement, telling it was time now for the youngsters to take over.
“This is my last T20 for India, I wanted to make the most of it … wanted to lift the Cup … wanted to respect the situation rather than force it,” he would say.
Spare a thought for South Africans, who played a part in the great thriller and who nearly found a way to escape the C-word that had ailed all their past white-ball teams to enter the final. And when Klassen had led a demolition job, it seemed history was within reach, but in the end when they reached out, their hands met thin air.
For a short while, Rohit and Dravid would have fretted that the feeling of emptiness awaited them at the end of another World Cup campaign. But things turned and how.
They are two vastly different individuals, with contrasting batting and captaincy approaches; Rohit and Dravid during their long careers had to put up with the similar cricketing lows. Universally hailed as cricketing greats, they were always tagged as second-best since they would be part of teams that had Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. In the company of God or King, they were commoners with earthy names. Dravid was the Wall, Rohit the Hit-Man.
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World Cups hadn’t been kind to both of them. In 2015, Rohit scored five hundreds but India would capsize in the semi-final. Last year, he was so close to doing a Dhoni — lift the World Cup at home as captain. In the final, he miscued a shot and fielder, Aussie Travis Head, took an impossible catch.
That day, in a corner of the dressing room, in the eerily silent 1 lakh-capacity Ahmedabad stadium he had cried. He would shed happy tears this time in faraway Barbados, where Dravid had once cried in disappointment in 2007.
The fan outrage after that 2007 team failed to clear the league phase turned ugly. Effigies of players were burnt, their houses attacked. Everyone in the team worried about their families, they dreaded returning home. This time the flight back will be more comfortable. After two heart-breaking ICC event final losses last year — World Test Championship in June, ODI World Cup in November – Dravid’s boys would give “Rahul bhai” a memorable farewell gift.
Unlike in 2007, as the flight takes off from these scenic Caribbean islands, Dravid and Team India would be keen to reach home. Awaiting them will be rewards, ticker-tape parade, open-bus celebrations and a possible trip to Lok Kalyan Marg.
In a video message on X, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would call the win “shaandar” and the one that would inspire the nation. “CHAMPIONS! Our team brings the T20 World Cup home in STYLE! We are proud of the Indian Cricket Team. This match was HISTORIC” — he would post.
At Barbados, India, easily the world’s best-resourced team, silenced their critics who questioned their big-match temperament and scoffed at the financial powerhouse’s failure to win titles. Indian cricket’s coffers were always sparkling with silver, Rohit and his boys have got the elusive silverware for their cabinet.
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