An India versus Pakistan match is always replete with drama. But when their group stage match ended in a tie at the 2007 World T20, the teams were forced to settle the contest in an unprecedented bow-out.
But how did it come to that?
India won the Group game against Pakistan at the T20 World Cup via a bowl-out, a system to yield a result in case of a tie, which was later replaced by Super Over. Image courtesy: Twitter/@ICC
Batting first, the Indians slumped to a dismal 36 for 4 at one stage before soldiering on and putting up a score of 141/9. Back in those days, where T20 leagues were still yet to spring up the world over (the Indian Premier League was started a year later in 2008), it was a competitive total. The Men in Blue were spurred by a quickfire 50 from Robin Uthappa and cameos from skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (33) and Irfan Pathan (20). Tearaway pacer Mohammad Asif claimed the wickets of Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Karthik.
None of the Indian bowlers proved to be that successful during the Pakistan innings, but they managed to restrict the opposition batsmen from scoring too freely, with Misbah-ul-Haq’s 53 the only impressive score.
With an over remaining, Pakistan needed 12 runs to seal victory. Misbah hit S Sreesanth for two boundaries in the first four deliveries to take Pakistan within touching distance of the target. The Indian pacer, defending one run off his last two deliveries, however, managed to bowl a dot ball, and then got Misbah run out off the sixth to force a bowl-out.
Dhoni, showing his acumen as a captain, handed the ball to Sehwag to bowl the first ball. To make the task easier for his bowlers, Dhoni chose the unconventional option of kneeling very close to the stumps while Pakistan’s keeper Kamran Akmal stood in his regular stance. Dhoni’s ploy worked.
Sehwag hit. Pakistan’s Yasir Arafat missed. 1-0 to India.
Coming second, Harbhajan bowled a faster delivery with no spin and hit. Umar Gul missed. 2-0 to India.
India’s third bowler Robin Uthappa also bowled and hit the target. Shahid Afridi missed, handing India a 3-0 victory.
The victory proved to be a confidence booster for the Indian team early into their campaign, particularly because they had come into the tournament after their failure to make it out of the group stage in the 50-over World Cup earlier that year.
To read more standout moments from past T20 World Cups, click here