Cricket
India triumph in T20 World Cup─── ILSE SMALBERGER 07:01 Sun, 30 Jun 2024
It was elation for India and heartache for South Africa as the team from the subcontinent triumphed in a thrilling T20 World Cup final in Barbados on Saturday.
India won the toss and chose to bat first. They had a dream start, hitting 15 runs off Marco Jansen in the first over. But Protea spinner Keshav Maharaj hit back in the second over, getting the important wicket of Indian skipper, Rohit Sharma, with Heinrich Klaassen taking the catch at square leg.
Maharaj took his second wicket in the same over when Rishab Pant got a top edge on the ball to carry it through to Quinton de Kock. Rabada took his first wicket in the fifth over, tempting Suryakumar Yadav to sweep to deep square and Klaassen taking a monster catch.
It was looking very good for South Africa, but then Axar Patel joined Virat Kholi at the crease and the pair put on an impressive 74 runs getting India to 106/4 in the 14th over. The partnership between Kohli and Patel looked unshakeable, until Kohli missed one and De Kock swooped onto the ball and hit the wickets on the non-striker’s end, leading to the end of Patel.
Kholi kept India’s going with a disciplined innings, and scored his half-century in the 16th over. And that’s when he really got cracking, adding 26 to his tally in the next three overs. Jansen finally got the breakthrough in the 19th over, dismissing Kohli for 76 with Rabada taking the catch in the deep. Shivam Dube was dismissed by Heinrich Nortje in the final over, leaving Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja to get India to 176/7 in their 20 overs, which is also the highest in a T20 World Cup final.
Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh both took early wickets – Bumrah bowled Reeza Hendricks in the second over, and Arshdeep claimed the scalp of captain Aidan Markram in the third.
De Kock (39 off 31) and Tristan Stubbs (31 off 21) brought some stability back to the Protea innings, but Klaassen looked like he had it in the bag for the South Africans. His 52 off 27 balls, took the Proteas to the brink of victory. However, Bumrah and Pandya had the final say for Indian, dismissing Miller (21), Jansen (2) and Rabada (4) in quick succession and leaving South Africa 8 runs short of victory.
OFM Sport/Ilse Smalberger
