India won the electrifying final by 5 runs. You can’t ask for more from a GRAND Final. The match was full of ups and downs. It brought a hugely entertaining tournament to a fitting climax, which was always likely – after all, the teams tied their group game.
Earlier today, India won the toss and decided to bat, and managed to post only 157 with the help of magnificent inning of Gautam Gambhir who scored 75 from 54 balls and Rohit Sharma who scored 30 runs from 16 balls.
Pakistan started their chase positively with 21 runs from first over of Sreensanth, but RP Singh had something else in his mind and he keep on taking wickets before Irfan Pathan broke the back of the Pakistan middle-order. Once again Dhoni trusted Joginder for the final over who disappointed Indian fans with first wide and then SIX, but he held his nerve to take the wicket of Misbah on third delivery.
Misbah was unlucky to have been able to take the team only so close to a win over India for the second successive time.
Dhoni gives his shirt away to a young fan and is walking around bare-chested. Reminds me of Sourav Ganguly at Lords
Board of Control for Cricket in India has announced a bonus of US$ 2 million for the team and a bonus of Rs 1 crore to Yuvraj Singh for his achievement of hitting six sixes in one over.
India 157/5 (20/20 ov)
Pakistan 152 (19.3/20 ov)
Man of the Match award Irfan Pathan
Player of the Tournament award Shahid Afridi
| Quotes of Final Day |
| Mahendra Singh Dhoni says It’s one of the things I will treasure for the rest of my life. I’d like to congratulate the boys and thank them for the response they have given me. No-one expected us to win and the way we played today we deserve a big celebration. Pakistan bowled really well today in the second half. But we knew we had runs on the board and we could bring some pressure on the batsmen. Bhajji was not 100% sure of getting yorkers in the death. I thought I should throw the ball to someone who really wants to well in international cricket. Jogi did a really good job. |
| Shoaib Malik says First of all I want to say something over here. I want to thank you back home Pakistan and where the MUSLIM lives all over the world. We gave our 100%, India have a strong batting line-up. We did well to restrict them to less than 160 but our batting didn’t come through. The Indians bowled really well and we played some bad shots. That’s why we ended up on the losing side in this game. |
| Irfan Pathan says It’s a great comeback for me. I held my nerve and bowled in the right areas. The pitch was a bit on the slower side. It gripped a bit when I bowled slower balls. I tried to mix up the pace and keep things tight. In the end it could have gone any way. The bowlers all did really well when Misbah was batting well. We played as a team and we won. |
| Shahid Afridi says Winning and losing is part of it. But we played really good cricket. Congratulations to the Indian captain and the whole team. I struggled a bit with my batting but I concentrated on my bowling. |
Readers may have noticed the highlighted comment of Shoaib Malik in uppercase letter. Does he mean Pakistani team is muslim team who plays for the muslim of whole world, and the player like Danish Kaneria, Youshaf Youhana(later on changed to muslim faith) doesn’t have a place in the team. I think, Shoaib Malik may not have noticed that the bowler who took his wicket and restriced Pakistan from winning this world cup is also a MUSLIM ( Irfan Pathan). Everybody makes mistake, I would expect Shoiab not to repeat the same thing again.
Victory March – The proud winners of the Twenty20 World Cup will be given a rousing open-top-motorcade reception by citizens after they arrive in Mumbai from South Africa on Wednesday morning.
The squad which defeated arch rivals Pakistan in Johannesburg on Monday to lift the title, will travel in an open-topped bus from the airport at Andheri in north-west Mumbai to Wankhede Stadium in South Mumbai, where a felicitation function for the players will be held by the Cricket Board.
The motorcade will proceed along the Western Express Highway through Mahim, Shivaji Park, Prabhadevi, Mahalaxmi, Peddar Road and onto Marine Drive before terminating at the Wankhede Stadium.
