The former India captain Sunil Gavaskar is delighted to see the national team, finally winning an ICC trophy, after a wait of 11 years, under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma and head-coach Rahul Dravid, against South Africa at the Kensington Oval, in Bridgetown, Barbados.
It’s also India’s second title of the format, having won the title during the inaugural edition in 2007. The ‘Men in Blue’ were unbeaten throughout the tournament, having beaten all the teams, during the group stage and the super-eight round of the competition.
South Africa too came into the final game of the competition with an unbeaten campaign, but fell short of the 177-run chase in 20-overs, from a position where they needed 30-runs at run-a-ball, even with both Heinrich Klassen and David Miller still being present on the crease.
‘It’s a great win after such a long time’- Sunil Gavaskar on Rohit Sharma-led India
Winning the toss in the afternoon, on a dry, low, and slow surface, Rohit Sharma decided to bat first, expecting the track to get slower during the second innings, where even a small 170-odd target was expected to be enough.
India went off to a flying start, as Virat Kohli nailed three boundaries in the very first over, bowled by Marco Jansen, who struggled to find the right line and length with the new ball. But then, Keshava Maharaj showed his class with the ball, sending back from Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant. Three overs later, Suryakumar Yadav too joined those two in the dressing room.
The hour required to play safe cricket, and Virat and Axar Patel, after being promoted in the batting order, started to punch the opposition with calculative risk. The former in the fourth-wicket partnership was taking the singles, while the latter was nailing those big shots, one after another.
The scoreboard was moving, as Kohli reached his second-slowest fifty in his T20I career after Axar Patel was run out lazily. Shivam Dube too smashed the bowlers from the start and contributed from what was expected at that moment from him.
With a few boundaries and over boundaries towards the end of the innings, Kohli ended with a 76-run knock in 59 balls, as the Rohit Sharma-led India team reached 176/7. Their captain has shown the intent for the whole tournament, but on a day when it was required, the others have backed it up with an incredible understanding of the game.
When they came under pressure with 30 runs being required at run-a-ball, the three pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, and Arshdeep Singh held their nerve and bowled with proper planning to earn a vital seven-run win over the Proteas to lift the trophy.
Sunil Gavaskar feels, that by reaching the final of these ICC tournaments, India were getting out of the nervous 90s, but with this sweet victory, the Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma stand made that much-needed century.
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‘It is a great win after such a long time. Earlier, I kept saying that India was getting 90s but not getting centuries because they were reaching semi-finals and finals.’ The former India opener Sunil Gavaskar reflected at the end of the T20 World Cup 2024 final. ‘Now, they have got a century, and what a wonderful century this is.’
With the victory, the two pillars of Indian cricket, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their T20I retirement, after Ravindra Jadeja followed them on the same path, to make way for the youngsters to come.
India will be facing Zimbabwe next in an away five-match T20I series, starting from July 06.