Indian bowlers, especially Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh kept calm in the end as India snatched victory from the jaws of defeat as they finally ended their 11-year ICC trophy drought and won the T20 World Cup for the second time in their history by beating South Africa by 7 runs.
Bumrah had cleaned up Reeza Hendricks in the second over while Arshdeep snapped up Aiden Markram in the 3rd as South Africa were rattled early in the chase of 176, losing 2 quick wickets. Virat Kohli scored 76 as India posted 176/7, the highest ever team total in the history of the T20 World Cup final against South Africa at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown in Barbados on Saturday. Shivam Dube supporeted him in the death, scoring 27 runs.
Earlier, Keshav Maharaj struck twice with wickets of Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant while Kagiso Rabada snapped up Suryakumar Yadav as India lost 3 wickets inside the powerplay. Axar Patel looked to be in good touch, scoring 47 but he also fell courtesy of a brilliant throw from Quinton de Kock.
It means a lot. Very emotional, we’ve been working very hard and something was not clicking. But today we got what the whole nation wanted. More special for me, how my last 6 months were, I haven’t spoken a word. I knew that if I kept working hard I could shine and do what I could do. Getting an opportunity like this makes it more special. We always believed, it was just about executing our plans and staying calm and letting the pressure come to them. Credit to Jassi (Bumrah) and the other bowlers for those last 5 overs. Knew it would not help me if I wasn’t calm, wanted to commit 100% to every ball I’ve bowled. I’ve always enjoyed pressure. Very happy for him (Dravid), he’s been a wonderful man, really enjoyed working with him, to give him a farewell like this is wonderful, have had a very good relationship with him and became friends. Very happy for all the support staff.
