24th September 2007 was the day when India and Pakistan squared off in the final of the very first ICC T20 World Cup, or the World T20, as it was known then. India had the advantage over Pakistan, having defeated them in a bowl out in league stages.
The Men in Blue had a relatively inexperienced side with Virender Sehwag, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, and Yuvraj Singh being the players with most international matches under their belt. The captain was a young, long-haired wicketkeeper MS Dhoni, who had created a name for himself as a brutal hitter of the ball, having scored his maiden ODI and Test hundreds against Pakistan.
The team was filled with young talents like Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Sreesanth, Robin Uthappa, and the Pathan brothers Irfan and Yusuf in the ranks and no one gave them a chance of even reaching the knockout stages, let alone go all the way into the finals.
Along the journey, they defeated the likes of England, where Yuvraj slammed six sixes off Stuart Broad, beat South Africa, knocking them out of the competition. Yuvraj came good in the semi-finals as well, against Australia, making 70 in 30 balls.
Finally, it was the time for the final, and MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat first. Gautam Gambhir top-scored with 75 and Rohit Sharma played an underrated knock of 30* in 16 balls, taking India to 157/5 in 20 overs.
In reply, a dangerous looking Imran Nazir was runout after injuring his groin, but the biggest danger came in form of Misbah-Ul-Haq, who slammed three sixes in one Harbhajan Singh over, shaking his confidence altogether.
Needing 13 runs off the last over, MS Dhoni gave the ball to Joginder Sharma in the biggest bluff of all time, and despite getting hit for a six, Joginder managed to induce a false shot from Misbah, which was gleefully accepted by Sreesanth at short fine leg and India became the first-ever T20 World Champions, lifting the trophy at The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa.
The members of that winning team reminisced about that wonderful moment 13 years ago on Twitter and we have some of the best tweets for you.
Check them out here:
