Fantastic bowling in the death overs saw the Men in Blue complete a famous triumph over the Proteas at the Kensington Oval
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Barbados: India faced South Africa in the final of the T20 World Cup at the Kensington Oval in Barbados. The Men in Blue won the toss and decided to bat first.
Virat Kohli gave a great start to the Indian innings by hitting 3 boundaries in the first over of the match to Marco Jansen. However, the Indian innings was disrupted in the second over when Keshav Maharaj dismissed both Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant. Suryakumar Yadav also lost his wicket cheaply in the fifth over leaving India in a spot of bother at 34/3 after 4.3 overs.
Next came in Axar Patel who formed a great partnership with Virat Kohli. Axar was the one who dominated in the partnership and hit 4 massive sixes in his valuable knock of 47. He got dismissed in the 14th over thanks to a run-out by Quinton de Kock. On the other end, Kohli kept on playing with a slow approach and reached his first half-century of the tournament in 48 balls.
After reaching the 50-run mark, Kohli changed gears and smashed over 20 runs in the last 2 overs before getting dismissed by Jansen in the second-last over after playing a heroic knock of 76. This great innings carried India to a decent total of 176/7 in 20 overs.
In reply, South Africa had a dreadful start losing Reeza Hendricks and captain Aiden Markram within the first 3 overs. Tristan Stubbs and Quinton de Kock steadied the South African innings and formed a great partnership of 58 runs. Axar Patel took the massive wicket of Stubbs in the ninth over. Then came the danger man, Heinrich Klaasen who started smashing the Indian bowlers from the get-go.
De Kock got dismissed on 39 in the 13th over, but Klaasen showed no signs of stopping. The match looked like it was going South Africa’s way after Klaasen smashed 24 runs to Axar in the 15th over. The batsman went on to score a 23-ball fifty to take the match completely in South Africa’s favor. However, the match completely changed in the 17th over when Klaasen was dismissed by Hardik Pandya on 52.
Then came a brilliant over by Jasprit Bumrah who dismissed Jansen and only gave away 2 runs in the over. Arshdeep Singh bowled a fantastic 19th over and only gave away 4 runs to turn the match on its head with The Proteas now needing 16 runs in the final over. Pandya dismissed the dangerous David Miller on the first ball of the over thanks to a wonderful catch by Suryakumar Yadav. Pandya was able to hold on to his nerves and bowled a fantastic final over to win the match for India by 7 runs.
India won their first ICC trophy in 11 years and became only the third side after West Indies and England to win the T20 World Cup more than once. This win will be remembered by the fans and players for years to come.
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