Allowing Ishant Sharma to bowl the crucial 18th over during the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 Final
It was the rain-interrupted final match of the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 between the hosts England and India at Birmingham. In that rain-interrupted 20-over game, the Indian team scored 129/7 (20 overs) after losing the toss.
In reply, England batting was also struggling from the beginning of that innings as they were battling on 46/4. However, Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara controlled the situation very well with the 50+ runs partnership (64 runs) for the fifth wicket and almost secured that game.
In the last three overs, England needed to score 28 runs and both Morgan and Bopara were at the crease. While both the Indian spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin had one over remaining each, it was very clear that the Indian captain MS Dhoni would use them in the final two overs of the match due to the pitch was supporting the spinners.
Though Bhuvneshwar Kumar still had one over and Umesh Yadav still had two overs, Dhoni chose experienced pacer Ishant Sharma for the crucial 18th over of that innings. Ishant was already very expensive in that game, so many were not expecting him in that over. Ishant conceded a sixer on the second ball of that over and then also conceded two back-to-back wides, which helped the hosts to reach closer to the target.
However, in the next two balls of that over, Ishant dismissed both the set batsmen (Morgan 33; Bopara 30) and put back the Indian team into that game. While Ishant conceded a total of nine runs in that over, India finally won that final match by five runs and also won the ICC Champions Trophy 2013.