WISH TEAM INDIA
With the winners’ medals hanging down their neck, two of the heroes of India’s famous seven-run win over South Africa in the final on Saturday brought out their bhangra (folk dance of Punjab) steps as Axar Patel, Rinku Singh, Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah joined in.
Kohli, who went through a lean patch during the group stage, Super 8s and the semifinal, reserved his best for the final as he top-scored for India with his 59-ball 76. With other notable contributions coming from allrounder Axar Patel (47 off 31 balls) and Shivam Dube (27 off 16 balls), India went on to put up a challenging 176 for 8 on the board.
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Arshdeep Singh then bowled a crucial 19th over, giving away just four runs, to set up India’s win. The left-arm pacer took one of the key wickets of opener Quinton de Kock (39 off 31 balls) besides dismissing SA skipper Aiden Markram for just four runs to finish with 2 for 20.
Allrounder Hardik Pandya, however, led the Indian bowling charts with his spell of 3 for 20, which included the game-changing wickets of SA’s top scorer Heinrich Klaasen (52 off 27 balls) and David Miller (21 off 17 balls), who was dismissed off a brilliant catch on the edge of the boundary by Suryakumar Yadav.
The victory also marked the last T20I appearance for Indian batting legends Rohit Sharma and Kohli, who announced their retirement from the shortest format in the international arena.
