T20 Cricket: India Beats Pakistan in a Thriller

Posted on September 24, 2007
Filed Under >Adil Najam, Sports
130 Comments
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Adil Najam

UPDATE:

India won the TwentyTwenty final in a thriller, after setting Pakistan 158 to win and then bowling Pakistan out (with three balls to spare) for 152. IK Pathan from India was names Man of the Match for very tidy bowling (3/16 from 4 overs) while Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi was named Man of the Series.

ORIGINAL POST:
I have resisted writing about the Twenty20 Cricket Tournament in South Africa till now. But now I can resist no more. All is set for a thriller final game against India.

What more could one ask for… well, actually, one could ask for Pakistan’s TwentyTwenty winning streak to continue into the Final game against India in Johannesburg on Monday!

Pakistan is on a roll. And this is no fluke. The victories against Australia and Sri Lanka were brilliant and breezing past New Zealand in the semi-final today proved that this is not just a lucky streak.

The young team under a young captain and a new coach seems to have finally found its stride. And it is about time…

Much of our cricket coverage this last year has been depressing. Umpire controversies, a disastrous World Cup Exit, death of a coach, players misbehaving, and more. So, this good news is very welcome. It is all the more welcome because other news these days is much less than welcome.

Pakistan India friendship, cheering cricket fan

India, too, has had a spectacular T20 tournament. In fact, the most memorable moments of the tournament till now were the 6 sixes in an over by Yuvraj against England.

That the game between India and Pakistan in the T20 tournament had ended in a tie will make the anticipation about the final even more nail-biting.

Neither team goes in as favorites. Both go in on a roll. Its should be one great game!

130 responses to “T20 Cricket: India Beats Pakistan in a Thriller”

  1. zamanov says:

    Very little difference between the two sides. Fantastic game of cricket. Misbah and the tailenders did the nation proud. That last shot will surely haunt Misbah for the rest of his life, but let’s face it, we would never even be in this situation if this guy hadn’t made a match of it. Super performances from him throughout the tournament. In the end the difference was just one hit, a few feet to the right and he would have become a living legend.

    I do agree that they gave a 100%. A few tactical errors made by the team (Fawad should have played, Imran should’ve been rested or retired hurt when the injury resurfaced, sending Akmal at one down was a mistake) but I was still proud that they fought to the end. That’s what matters. Give it your best and let the chips fall where they may. The Indian team and country will always have this fear that you can’t count out the Pakistani team until the very end. They are a dangerous team under the refreshing leadership of Shoaib Malik, and the emergence of wonderful new talent like Suhail, Yasir and Fawad.

    It goes to show you that this game is not about personalities but about your performance on the field. Hopefully the PCB and the nation will recognize that and reward the guys who actually perform and make an effort to improve themselves as professionals! Stop this blind worship of personality and focus on performance in all walks of national life.

    After a long long time I was proud to see how the Pakistani cricket team performed in an international tournament.
    The loss is painful but the shining ray of hope of what this new-look team can do makes me want to watch cricket all over again!
    Bravo young men…

  2. Kamran says:

    It was a thrilling end to a magnificient couple of days. I highly respect Pakistan in how they came back from the dead and nearly won the game. It shows the fighting spirit that the young side had. The previous Pakistani team would have just folded in the circumstances.

    Misbah has done me proud, I was a bit skeptical about his selection over Yousuf, but taking nothing away from Yousuf, Misbah showed why he was selected, he had the perfect temperament for this version of the game (right amount of aggression and defense)

    Would have love to see Afridi display something with the bat, sadly we will have to wait for later. Overall, you can take positives out of the win, Pakistani cricket is on the right track and I wish them the best of Luck.

  3. Aamir Ali says:

    Its amazing how gracious Indians are in victory.

  4. Sridhar says:

    Congratulations to both teams for giving us an excellent game of cricket. Never before has a World Cup final been so exciting.

    I was skeptical about T20 when the tournament started, but the last few days has firmly established it as another, if not the most important form of the game. And while the rules are indeed loaded towards the batsmen, these two teams in particular have showed that bowling can win matches even in the T20 format. There is a lot of exciting action in the weeks and months ahead. With the Premier Cricket League starting in India and the Champions League at the international level, the game of cricket is going to see a paradigm shift. The players and viewers will both be beneficiaries of this change. I would like to see the 1-day and test formats survive and thrive though. It would be a pity if the richness of these formats is lost in the T20 frenzy.

  5. ChristianPak says:

    Shoaib Malik “First of all I’d like to thank people back home and the Muslims around the world. We gave our 100%,” he says

    Shoaib,
    How about Hindu and Christian Pakistanis in the US, Canada and Gulf who supported the Pakistan cricket team? Don’t we count?

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