Team Indias Greatest T20I Wins: India has a chequered T20I history. They are one of the few teams to have won more and lost less. Their batters top the charts when it comes to scoring the most runs. India leads the way with batters scoring multiple T20 centuries. The supply chain i.e. the IPL keeps churning out talents. In the third part of this series, we look at India’s three wins across 3 different decades. Each of these wins has its significance in India’s T20I history.
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Team Indias Greatest T20I Wins
#3 The heist at Hamilton, 2020
India was already leading 2-0 heading into the 3rd T20I at Hamilton. New Zealand won the toss and put India into bat. Indian openers got off to a strong start. They put on 89 runs for the first wicket inside 9 overs. Apart from Shivam Dube and Shreyas Iyer all the Indian batters struck at more than 140. India finished with 179-5, a total that seemed a little underwhelming considering the position India was in at one stage.
In reply, New Zealand started well. Their opening stand was worth 47 runs in just 5.4 overs. But it was their fifth and sixth wicket partnership that threatened to take the game away. New Zealand were outright favourites to win the game. They needed just 9 to win with 6 wickets in hand. But Mohammad Shami bowled a terrific final over to take the game to a super over.
Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson batted for New Zealand smashing 17 runs in the super over. It was KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma for India. India needed 10 runs off the last two balls and Sharma was on strike. He hit two huge sixes to help India win a game they had no business winning.
#2 The magic at Mohali, 2016 T20 World Cup
It was a virtual quarterfinal as India and Australia met each other once again in an ICC knockout game. Australia opted to bat winning the toss. They got off to an absolute flier as Usman Khawaja and Aaron Finch mustered up 50 inside 4 overs. Ashish Nehra and Yuvraj Singh pulled things back for India as they restricted the Aussies to 160-6. It was a competitive total considering Australia’s big match temperament.
India was 3 down for 49 in 7.4 overs. They needed 112 in 74 balls with the pressure mounting. Yuvraj failed to get going and was dismissed with the score reading 94-4 in 14 overs. It was now up to the captain and the vice-captain to conjure something. The pair ran hard between wickets but they were still behind as it came down to 39 runs off the last 3 overs. It was Kohli who unleashed his beast mode to see India through with 5 balls left. His 82 not out of 51 balls is rated as one of the best T20I knocks of all time!
#1 The dream win in the final
India and Pakistan met each other once again in the 2007 T20 World Cup final. The memories of the bowl-out in their league clash were still fresh. But Pakistan was unbeaten since and India too had dropped just one game leading to the finals. MS Dhoni called the toss correctly and India chose to bat first. Yusuf Pathan smashed a six in the very first over setting the tone of the final. But India kept losing wickets at regular intervals. It was Gautam Gambhir’s innings of 75(54) that helped India consolidate. A young Rohit Sharma scored a valuable 30 from just 16 balls to help India finish with a score of 157-5.
Pakistan’s response was typical. They were boom and bust every alternate over. Imran Nazir smashed 33 off 14 balls before being needlessly run out. At 77-6, it appeared that Pakistan had thrown in the towel. But Misbah-ul-Haq once again stood up tall. He shepherded the lower order brilliantly and took Pakistan within touching distance. They were just one hit away from winning the World Cup. But Misbah mistimed one to the short fine leg fielder and India scraped through a memorable win. India became the inaugural T20 World Cup champions. Their win rewrote cricketing history!
