India Are Twenty20 World Champions

INDIA ARE TWENTY20 WORLD CHAMPIONS

India's southpaws produced
sterling performances as they prevailed in a thrill-a-minute final of the ICC
Twenty20 World Championship, and for a change Yuvraj Singh was not one of them.

Gautam Gambhir, Rudra Pratap
Singh and Irfan Pathan came up with heroic efforts to help India score a
last-over victory in the much- awaited clash between the arch rivals and also
had the satisfaction of bowling out their opposition with three deliveries to
go.

With Pakistan needing 13 off the
last over to be bowled by Joginder Sharma and just one wicket in hand and
prolific Misbah-ul-Haq on strike, it was anyone's game. But Indian fans got the
jitters when Joginder bowled an ugly wide and then got hit for a straight six by
Misbah.

Suddenly, the equation was down
to six from five balls. Joginder produced an important dot ball and then Misbah
moved out towards the off stump but only ballooned the ball up and S Sreesanth
made up for his poor bowling earlier in the day to take a well-judged catch at
square leg.

India, who had lost the final of
the 2003 World Cup to Australia at this same venue, scored a memorable victory
much to the delight of the majority of the crowd that had been backing them.

The Indian players broke into an
impromptu dance and took a victory lap with their national flag as the country
got ready to celebrate the anticipated win. A fireworks display added to the
excitement when the Indians were given the trophy.

A packed house waved national
flags and shouted slogans like India jeetega and Pakistan zindabad
as the two teams clashed in the final of a world level event for only the second
time, the previous occasion being the Benson and Hedges World Championship in
Australia in 1985.

India owed it to left-handed
opener Gambhir, who steadied the Indian innings with a fine half-century.

RP Singh produced the early
breakthroughs and other left-arm seamer Irfan Pathan broke the back of the
Pakistan middle-order as their jinx against India in world level competitions
continued.