Twenty20 World Championship 2007 Final

India vs Pakistan

WORLD TWENTY20 final, Johannesburg: India v Pakistan

The inaugural Twenty20 World cup final, on Monday, is a marketing man's dream - with Pakistan taking on India.
India held its nerve against a brave charge by Australia to win the spectacle by a handsome margin of 15 runs after setting a target of 189 while earlier in the day, Umar Gul's sensational seam bowling and Imran Nazir's half-century ensured Pakistan the first spot in the ICC World Twenty20 final at New Zealand's expense.

Chasing a target of 144 runs, after a combination of poor batting and excellent bowling restricted New Zealand to 143-8 from their 20 overs, Pakistan won the semi-final encounter at the Newlands cricket ground in Cape Town by six wickets after knocking off 147 runs in 18.5 overs. A middle order collapse had cost New Zealand vital runs after a promising start, Ross Taylor top-scoring with 37.

At Durban, brilliant left-hander Yuvraj Singh hit 70 off just 30 balls as India won the toss and recovered spectacularly from a sluggish start to total 188-5. Australia crumbled when 30 were needed from the last three to end on 173-7.

WORLD TWENTY20 semi-final, Durban: India 188-5 (20 overs) beat Australia 173-7 (20 overs) by 15 runs
WORLD TWENTY20 semi-final, Cape Town: Pakistan 147-4 (18.5 overs) beat New Zealand 143-8 (20 overs) by six wickets

ICC World 20-20, IND vs PAK, Final: India wins the ICC World Twenty20 Championship

India beat arch-rivals Pakistan by five runs in a thrilling contest to win the inaugral Twenty20 World Cup at Johannesburg on Monday.
Defending a modest 158, RP Singh struck first up to scalp Mohammad Hafeez for one run and give India a kickstart. He struck in his successive over to uproot Kamran Akmal for a duck. At that point of time, Pakistan's scorecard read 26 for 2 in 2.3 overs.
Imran Nazir then hammered Indian bowlers all over the ground and soon Pakistan were cruising as they crossed 50 run mark in 6th over with the loss of 2 wickets.
But a splendid direct hit from Robin Uthappa ended Nazirs run at Wanderers. Nazir was caught napping way outside the crease. Nazir was run out on the score of 33 runs from 14 balls. India were riding on high note against Pakistan as they claimed wickets at regular wickets to derail Pakistans attack.
This time Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi were sent of in a hurry by Irfan Pathan. Pathan struck on 3rd and 5th ball of his over to dismiss the two batsman. While Shoaib made just 8 runs, Afridi was out on duck. Pathan claimed his third wicket when he cleaned bowled Yasir Arfat for 14.
Earlier, India were restricted to a modest total of 157 runs by Pakistan. Indian top order crumbled under the fiery attack of Pakistan seamers. But it was a hard fought innings of 75 runs from Gautam Gambhir that boosted Indian total to a modest score. Gambhir's fifty came of just 39 balls. He was caught by Shoaib Malik off the bowling of Mohammad Asif. Umar Gul, with his match figures of 4-0-28-3 was the best bowlers of the day. He dimissed the key wickets of India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh. Yuvraj made 14 runs from 19 balls.

Reported EarlierIndia captain Mahendra Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat in the ICC World Twenty20 final against Pakistan.
India suffered a blow when they had to bring Yusuf Pathan in for Virender Sehwag after the opener failed to recover from his groin problem. Pakistan also made one change to their semi-final line-up, Yasir Arafat coming in for fellow all-rounder Fawad Alam.

Pre-Match Report: India and Pakistan aim to provide the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 with an exciting climax when they meet in the final at Johannesburg on Monday.
The two sides played out a dramatic tie earlier in the tournament, with India coming out on top after a bowl-out. "There is nothing more exciting than an India-Pakistan match, so expect some fun," said skipper Mahendra Dhoni.
India will again hope for fireworks from Yuvraj Singh, while Pakistan will look to Shoaib Malik and Misbah-ul-Haq. The middle-order pair have been one of the main reasons for Pakistan's success in the tournament so far, although team-mate Shahid Afridi heads the overall player of the tournament standings for his 91 runs and 12 wickets.
The players of both the sides have redeemed the reputations of their teams after both were eliminated from the World Cup earlier this year after the opening round. "The World Cup is history and we are just concentrating on this final. Things have been going very nicely and we are playing much better." said Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik.

India Team (from): Mahendra Dhoni (captain, wk), Dinesh Karthik, Ajit Agarkar, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Joginder Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Rudra Pratap Singh, Sree Santh, Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh.
Pakistan Team (from): Shoaib Malik (captain), Kamran Akmal (wk), Abdur Rehman, Fawad Alam, Iftikhar Anjum, Imran Nazir, Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Hafeez, Salman Butt, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Yasir Arafat, Younus Khan.

ICC World Twenty20, IND vs PAK, Final: India 157-5 (20 overs) beat Pakistan 152 (19.3 overs) by five runs

Twenty20 World Championship 2007 Final

India vs Pakistan

Scorecard

India Innings 157 for 5 (20.0 overs)

Pakistan Innings 152 all out (19.3 overs)

			Runs	Balls	4s	6s
Gambhir	c Asif	b Gul	75	54	8	2
Pathan	c Malik	b Asif	15	8	1	1
Uthappa	c Afridi	b Tanvir	8	11	1	0
Yuvraj	c and b	Gul	14	19	1	0
Dhoni		b Gul	6	10	0	0
R Sharma	not out		30	16	2	1
Pathan	not out		3	3	0	0
Extras		1nb 4w 1lb	6
Total		for 5	157	(20.0 ovs)

Bowler O M R W Asif 3.0 0 25 1 Tanvir 4.0 0 29 1 Afridi 4.0 0 30 0 Hafeez 3.0 0 25 0 Gul 4.0 0 28 3 Arafat 2.0 0 19 0

Fall of wicket   25 Pathan 40 Uthappa 103 Yuvraj 111 Dhoni 130 Gambhir

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			Runs	Balls	4s	6s
Hafeez	c Uthappa	b RP Singh	1	3	0	0
Nazir	run out		33	14	4	2
Akmal		b RP Singh	0	3	0	0
Younis	c Pathan	b J Sharma	24	24	4	0
Malik	c R Sharma	b Pathan	8	17	0	0
Misbah-ul-Haq	c Sreesanth	b J Sharma	43	38	0	4
Afridi	c Sreesanth	b Pathan	0	1	0	0
Arafat		b Pathan	15	11	2	0
Tanvir		b Sreesanth	12	4	0	2
Gul		b RP Singh	0	2	0	0
Asif	not out		4	1	1	0
Extras		1nb 6w 1b 4lb	12
Total		all out	152	(19.3 ovs)

Bowler O M R W RP Singh 4.0 0 26 3 Sreesanth 4.0 1 44 1 J Sharma 3.3 0 20 2 Pathan 1.0 0 5 0 Pathan 4.0 0 16 3 Harbhajan 3.0 0 36 0

Fall of wicket   2 Hafeez 26 Akmal 53 Nazir 65 Younis 76 Malik 77 Afridi 104 Arafat 138 Tanvir 141 Gul 152 Misbah-ul-Haq

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Umpires: M R Benson, S J A Taufel
Pakistan: Hafeez, Nazir, Younis, Misbah-ul-Haq, Malik, Afridi, Akmal, Arafat, Tanvir, Gul, Asif
India: Gambhir, Uthappa, Yuvraj, Pathan, Dhoni, R Sharma, Pathan, Harbhajan, J Sharma, Sreesanth, RP Singh

Twenty20 Schedule, South Africa

World Twenty20 2007

Group A:

11 September: South Africa vs West Indies at Johannesburg
13 September: West Indies vs Bangladesh at Johannesburg
15 September: South Africa vs Bangladesh at Cape Town

Group B:

12 September: Australia vs Zimbabwe at Cape Town
13 September: Zimbabwe vs England at Cape Town
14 September: Australia vs England at Cape Town

Group C:

12 September: New Zealand vs Kenya at Durban
14 September: Sri Lanka vs Kenya at Johannesburg
15 September: Sri Lanka vs New Zealand at Johannesburg

Group D:

12 September: Pakistan vs Scotland at Durban
13 September: India vs Scotland at Durban
14 September: India vs Pakistan at Durban

Super Eight phase:

16 September: New Zealand vs India at Johannesburg
16 September: Australia vs Bangladesh at Cape Town
16 September: South Africa vs England at Cape Town
17 September: Pakistan vs Sri Lanka at Johannesburg
18 September: New Zealand vs England at Durban
18 September: Australia vs Pakistan at Johannesburg
18 September: Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka at Johannesburg
19 September: South Africa vs New Zealand at Durban
19 September: England vs India at Durban
20 September: Australia vs Sri Lanka at Cape Town
20 September: Bangladesh vs Pakistan at Cape Town
20 September: South Africa vs India at Durban

Semi-finals:

22 September: New Zealand vs Pakistan at Cape Town
22 September: India vs Australia at Durban

Final:

24 September at Johannesburg