Joginder Sharma, the hero of India’s 2007 T20 World Cup win, recently called time on his cricketing career. He played 4 T20Is and 4 ODIs for India and his last game for the team was the final of that ICC event against Pakistan in Johannesburg, South Africa.
MS Dhoni captained India for the first time ever and led a team filled with youngsters with the likes of Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, and Virender Sehwag for experience, to the T20 World Championship.
The title came to the Men in Blue in an entertaining final against arch-rivals Pakistan and while defending 157 runs, the equation came down to 13 runs in the last over with Pakistan having one wicket in hand.
However, they had a rampaging Misbah Ul Haq at the crease and MS Dhoni had the option of bowling Harbhajan Singh or Joginder Sharma in the final over thanks to a miscalculation on his part.
Member of that winning team, pacer RP Singh has now revealed how MS Dhoni decided to hand the ball to Joginder Sharma.
“Dhoni used to believe that 20th over isn't as important as the 17th, 18th, and 19th. Misbah was playing really good that time. Harbhajan usually used to bowl the 17th over and more often than not, get us a breakthrough there. But Misbah was in some different touch that day. So there, it was a miscalculation,” RP Singh said during his commentary stint at the SA20 league.
India had batted first and posted 157/5 with Gautam Gambhir making 75. Imran Nazir made 33 and then Misbah Ul Haq made 43 in 38 balls to bring Pakistan to the brink of victory.
“Harbhajan couldn't complete his overs. I had to bowl the 19th over, Sreesanth had to bowl before me. We had two options, either go with Harbhajan or Joginder. Misbah was batting good and if it was a left-handed batter, then Harbhajan would've bowled the final over. Since it was a right-handed batter, Joginder was given the ball,” RP Singh further said.
Defending 13 runs in the last 6 balls, Joginder bowled a wide and a dot ball and then was hit for a six on the second ball. However, on the next ball, he tried to ramp Joginder’s slow, short ball over the short fine leg fielder, but the ball lobbed in the air, where Sreesanth caught the ball and India won the match by 5 runs and became the first-ever T20 World Champions.
(Hindustan Times inputs)
