India won the toss, and as expected, decided to bat first. First ball - Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan (Irfan's brother) scamper for a single, Yusuf dives into the crease, and survives the direct throw. The battle has begun. Fourth ball - Yusuf heaves the bowler over long on for a six, and the Indian juggernaut has started rolling.Gambhir top scores with 75, and Rohit Sharma playes a cameo innings, ensuring that India managed a fairly decent 157/5. However, Yuvraj and Dhoni fail with the bat, which mean that India have not really managed to get the 180+ they were looking to set.
RP Singh starts with a good over, before Sreesanth gives off 21 in the next. Indian hearts start sinking... however the bowlers stick to the guns. RP is devastating, and so is Irfan. Both scalp 3 wickets each, leaving the Pakistanis tottering, with an asking rate of around 11 and very few wickets in hand.
Harbhajan is then carted for 3 sixes, and another one follows in the next over. Pakistan are now 17 runs away, in 8 balls, with 2 wickets to go. RP castles the batsman in the next ball - 17 more, just one wicket to go! And then it's a 4 - 13 to go off the next over.
Dhoni hands the ball to Joginder, the weak link (he later explained that Harbhajan was not sure he'd be able to bowl the required yorkers) in our bowling line up. Misbah on strike - and the first ball goes for a six. Indian flags sink, our hearts sink with them. Joginder loses his nerve - the next ball is a wide. One dot ball. Now it's just 6 in 4. Joginder takes his run up, Misbah moves out towards the off, and scoops the bowl over his head towards the fine leg boundary - however, his smart move turns to be fatal - Joginder doesn't have the required pace - the ball goes up, wobbles, and then comes down, straight into the waiting hands of Sreesanth! India have bowled out Pakistan with 5 runs to spare - India have won! India are World Twenty20 Champions!
India have so much to take from this tournament, and so much to be proud of! Coming in after a tiring tour of England, without the big 3 (Sachin-Saurav-Rahul), an inexperienced young captain in Mahendra Singh Dhoni, without a coach, and with only one T20 match before the tournament, India were not even expected to reach the semis. However, this Indian team was too young to fear failure, and too dangerous to take for granted. After defeating Pakistan in a bowl out, India lost to New Zealand, but then bounced back beating England and South Africa to top the group, and then convincingly demolished the Australian batting in the semis to set up the dream final.
And as SRK watched from the stands, and Chak De played in the stadiums, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Sreesanth, Jogindar Singh, Robin Uthappa - the boys - proved that youthful exuberance could take on, and defeat, experience. MS Dhoni impressed one and all with his cool head, his attitude, his clever field placements and bowling changes - and when he took off his shirt at the end of the match, he was perhaps only making one statement, a new Dada had arrived! And as the Times of India aptly put it, the boys in blue had turned into men before our adoring eyes...
Back in Pune, I watched the match with Siddha and Shweta, and erupted into riotous screaming and shouting as the wickets tumbled - as soon as the last ball had been bowled, we all left to join the thousands of fans celebrating in Pune's streets - FC, JM, MG - all roads and gullies were chock-a-block with cars blaring horns, hundreds of proud Indian flags fluttering and waving in the wind, our Lisa blared out "Chak De India" - this song has virtually become a war cry for young Indians in the last couple of months - a PMT bus passed by with a dozen fans and flags perched on it's roof - a group of youngsters ran down FC with a huge flag spread out flat, blessing the countless cars and bikes as they passed underneath. Everyone was shouting and screaming Bharat Mata ki Jai, and as the police did an awesome job of keeping the roads open and traffic moving, impromptu dance floors sprung up every now and then, and occupants jumped out of their cars to join the party, before another police bike arrived to make them move on... people hugged and shook hands and smiled at everyone - it was just such an awesome awesome night none of us are likely to forget for decades to come!
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