Courtesy: ICC
India won the T20 World Cup 2024 title after defeating South Africa by a seven-run margin at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, on June 29. After the Indian batters did well to reach the 176/7 total with key contributions from Virat Kohli, Axar Patel, and Shivam Dube, the bowling lineup spearheaded by Jasprit Bumrah managed to successfully defend the runs, stopping the power hitters of South Africa from scoring at a run-a-ball in the death overs.
With just five overs remaining in the South African run chase in the T20 World Cup 2024 final, the Indian bowlers had just 30 runs in their bank to defend with six wickets in hand for the opposition batting lineup. Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller had taken 38 runs off the last two overs, looking set to steamroll India in the ICC tournament final before Jasprit Bumrah was brought back into the attack by the Indian captain Rohit Sharma.
Although Jasprit Bumrah didn’t break the highly important partnership of Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, they were quite content with scoring just four runs in the 16th over. Hardik Pandya managed to pick up the key wicket of Heinrich Klaasen at the start of the 17th over following a massive break in play, and he ended up giving away just four runs in the over despite bowling the majority of the deliveries to David Miller.
Rohit Sharma took a bold decision to complete the four-over spell of Jasprit Bumrah in the 18th over of the South African innings, and it paid dividends as he dismissed Marco Jansen, while not allowing David Miller to break free, conceding just two runs. Arshdeep Singh came back into the attack in the 19th over, to leave as many runs as possible for India to defend in the last over, and he gave away just four runs, to put his team in the box seat to win the contest for the first time during the afternoon.
In the 20th and final over of the South African innings, Hardik Pandya had 15 runs in the bank, and he started with a full toss, which David Miller could only spoon towards the long-on region, where Surykumar Yadav took one of the most important catches in the Indian cricket history. The all-rounder conceded just eight runs in the over, while also picking up the wicket of Keshav Maharaj on the penultimate ball, to ensure that India rejoiced as the team won the T20 World Cup trophy for the second time in their cricketing history.
