Sports Desk

India held their nerves to beat South Africa by seven wickets in the nail-biting final of the ICC T20 World Cup to end their long 11-year title drought of winning a global tournament at the Kensington Oval in Barbados on Saturday.

Virat Kohli starred with the bat in the thrilling final as he struck 76 off 59 balls while Axar Patel made a valuable contribution of 47 off 31 balls to help India post a challenging 176-7 in their 20 overs after they elected to bat first.

South Africa, in reply, were reduced to 106-4 in the 13th over but Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller then shared a partnership of 45 runs off just 22 balls to put their side on top of the game.

Klaasen hammered Axar two fours and two sixes and took 24 runs in the 15th over to swing the game’s fate to South Africa’s way as they required only 30 runs off the last 30 balls but India bounced back into the contest when Hardik Pandya dismissed Klaasen after the batter made a blazing knock of 52 off 27 balls with two fours and five sixes.

The dismissal of Klaasen shifted the momentum to India’s favour once again as their pacers conceded only 10 runs in the next three overs to leave South Africa with 16 runs to chase in the final over.

Miller (21 off 17) then attempted a big shot in the first ball of Hardik (3-20) in the final over only to get caught by Suryakumar Yadav as he took a sensational catch, perhaps the catch of the tournament, at long off to seal the fate of the contest as India regained the T20 World Cup title after a gap of 17 long years.

The last time India won the T20 World Cup was back in 2007 when they beat arch-rivals Pakistan in the inaugural edition final in Johannesburg. Meanwhile, India’s last ICC title came in 2013 when they beat England in the Champions Trophy final and since then, they lost five ICC tournament finals.

Meanwhile, with this win, India emerged as the first team to become unbeaten champions in the shortest-format global tournament.

Earlier, despite losing the wickets of Rohit Sharma (nine), Rishabh Pant (0) and Suryakumar (three) within the power-play, Kohli and Axar kept India in the contest by adding 70 runs for the fourth wicket.

The partnership was broken after Axar was run out but Kohli kept India’s scoreboard tickling by scoring a dogged fifty in the final.

Kohli, who made just 75 runs in the previous seven matches in the tournament, came out of the shell after completing his fifty as he scored 26 runs off just 11 balls including two fours and as many sixes in the slog overs to take India’s score beyond the 160-run mark.

Shivam Dube also made a 16-ball 27 to power India post the highest total in a T20 World Cup final.

Keshav Maharaj and Anrich Nortje took two wickets each for the Proteas.

India’s tournament hero Bumrah (2-18) then gave his side the first breakthrough when he removed opener Reeza Hendricks (four) in the second over before Arshdeep Singh dismissed South African skipper Aiden Markram (four) in the next over.

Quinton de Kock (39) and Tristan Stubbs (31) then shared a 58-run stand for the third wicket that came as a damage control before the latter became Axar’s only victim in the contest.

De Kock and Klaasen then put up 36 runs in a quick time to take their score over the 100-run mark but the former lost his wicket to Arshdeep (2-20) in the 13th over, leaving the remaining task to Klassen and Miller, who nearly pulled off a sensational win in South Africa’s cricket history only to choke once again.

Kohli, who announced his T20I retirement after the win, was named player of the final for his brilliant knock while Bumrah was adjudged player of the tournament for taking 15 wickets at an average of 8.27.