India Come Back from the Dead to Emerge Champions

Brilliant bowling at the death from pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh and a breathtaking catch on the boundary by Suryakumar Yadav in the last over turned the game around for the champions after they were down and almost out after 15 overs — South Africa needed 30 at run-a-ball with six wickets in hand and looked set to hunt down India’s 176 for 7.

Bumrah conceded four runs in the 16^th over and just two in the 18^th which also fetched the wicket of Marco Jansen while Arshdeep gave away four in the penultimate over to tighten the screws. Then, with South Africa needing 16 runs off the last over bowled by Hardik Pandya, SKY turned a certain six into a controlled catch to get rid of the dangerous David Miller (21) and put the opposition on the mat. They could not get up and eventually limped to 169 for 8.

Heinrich Klaasen had taken the game away with his 27-ball 52 before India pulled it back. Quinton de Kock (39) and Tristan Stubbs (31) were the other run-getters for South Africa, who will continue to carry the ‘Chokers’ tag that has been around their necks for a long time.

Earlier, India posted the highest total in a T20 World Cup final thanks to a steady 76 by opener Virat Kohli, a valuable 47 from Axar Patel and their innings-stabilising 72-run partnership for the fourth wicket after the team had slipped to 34 for 3 in the fifth over.

They began well though. Kohli drove on either side of the wicket to pick three boundaries in the first over bowled by left-arm pacer Jansen as the Blues took 15 off the opening over.

From the other end, Rohit cut and reverse swept Keshav Maharaj for successive boundaries but was out, caught brilliantly by Klaasen at square leg as he tried to sweep the left-arm spinner. India 23 for 1. Two balls later, Rishabh Pant fell for a duck, top edging Keshav Maharaj to de Kock behind the stumps. Another brilliant catch by Klaasen, running to his left at fine leg, saw the departure of Suryakumar Yadav (3) and put India in trouble.

At the end of Powerplay, India were 45 for 3, their slowest since the Super Eight stage in the tournament.

India’s 50 came up in the eighth over, in 43 balls and included seven fours. Soon, Axar Patel lifted Markram into the stands for the first six of the game. Next over, he carted Maharaj out of the ground.

Axar also brought up India’s 100, with a six over long-on off pacer Kagiso Rabada on the first ball of an eventful 14^th over, in which he got run out courtesy a direct hit at the non-striker’s end by wicket-keeper de Kock. Axar’s 31-ball innings was decorated with four sixes and a boundary.