Revision as of 18:47, 31 July 2024

Matches

India beats Afghanistan

Dwaipayan Datta, June 21, 2024: The Times of India

Scoreboard, Afghanistan vs. India, T20 World Cup, 2024
From: Dwaipayan Datta, June 21, 2024: The Times of India

Bridgetown, Barbados : When genius takes over, you’ll have to stand, watch and applaud. This Indian team, desperate to break their 17-year T20 World Cup jinx, has that abundance.
On Thursday, it was the turn of two Mumbai boys — Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah — to take over at the Kensington Oval. There was more than a sturdy resistance from Afghanistan, who threatened to make a match of it, at least in the first half.


But over two sessions, ‘SKY’ and Bumrah showed why they are absolute masters of the format as India made a superb start to their Super-8 campaign with a 47-run win.


Let’s talk about Bumrah first. When the first over goes for 13, 182 can look chaseable even on a pitch where the ball was stopping and turning a bit. But not when Bumrah is around and the opposition batting lineup lacks the cutting edge of, let’s say, Australia.


Rahmanullah Gurbaz is a known name on the Indian circuit plying his trade for IPL champions KKR, and he had struck a couple of beautiful blows against Arshdeep Singh in the first over. But Bumrah (3/7), right in his second delivery, took the pace off the ball and induced a nick off Gurbaz that took the life out of the Afghanistan chase in the second over itself.


Bumrah, using the angles beautifully and hitting the perfect spots, had opener Hazratullah Zazai soon after and it was all but over. In his first two overs in the Powerplay, Bumrah got 2/5 and all Afghanistan managed in the first six was 35-3.


Following that, it was over to Kuldeep Yadav (2-32), playing his first game of the World Cup ahead of Mohammed Siraj, Ravindra Jadeja and the rest as India completed a walk in the park.


Before Bumrah got into his act with the ball, it was his Mumbai Indians colleague who showed why he has been the best T20 batter in the world for the last two years. With the wily Rashid Khan (3-26) in his elements and India’s famed top-three of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant not making a significant contribution, it had to be Surya who had to come to the rescue.


He is a master on these tracks, as he himself said during an interaction with the press on Tuesday. He knows how to deal with the slowness, how to get the ball into the gaps, and how to use his wrists to generate power. The beauty of Surya is that he is ready to run like a man possessed as well when the boundaries are not easy to come by.


The 33-year-old proved to be the “gamechanger” that he wants to be in this World Cup. He found an ally in Hardik Pandya (32 off 24 balls), who looked really good with the bat after a long time.


The Surya-Hardik partnership yielded 60 off six overs, one straight six by Hardik that crashed into the glasspane of the press-box being the standout. The way Surya was going, one felt he could have got a few more than the 28-ball 53, but a top-edge in the 17th over brought an end to a special knock. 
This is an innings, though, the versatile right-hander will look back with a plenty offondness, if something truly memorable yields from this World Cup sojourn in 10 days’ time at the same venue.

Bangladesh loses to India

Dwaipayan Datta, June 23, 2024: The Times of India

Scoreboard, India vs Bangladesh, T20 World Cup, 2024
From: Dwaipayan Datta, June 23, 2024: The Times of India

Once the niceties of the two most beautiful national anthems by the same poet were done on the faraway shores of Antigua, it was on India to take charge of their Super8s group and all but seal a semis spot.


From openers Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to cavaliers Rishabh Pant and Shivam Dube, everybody contributed. Jasprit Bumrah (2/13), too, was his usual miserly self as Bangladesh huffed and puffed to a 50-run loss.


But as India all but shut out Bangladesh’s hopes in this T20 World Cup, it was Hardik Pandya who put all his troubles to the side to stand up and deliver. Hardik has been slowly gathering momentum through the World Cup after a horrendous IPL, and on Saturday morning at the hot and sticky Vivian Richard Stadium, the allrounder came to the party.


His 27-ball 50 was the cornerstone of India’s 196-5, a score big enough to notch up the easy win against a team that doesn’t have the firepower in its batting. Coming into bowl within the Powerplay, Hardik used the slower ball to remove the dangerous opener Liton Das caught at deep square leg, that halted Bangladesh’s improbable chase.


Earlier, Hardik had come in to bat with the score on 108-4 in the 12th over, the entire top-order back in the hut. One more wicket at that stage could have made things slightly tricky for India, but Hardik ensured that nothing on those lines would happen.


Clearing his front leg, Hardik played the shots that made himself such a menace over the years as Shivam Dube (34 off 24 balls) came up with a useful contribution towards the end. The 53- run stand that he had with Dube was the right injection at the right time, the colossal sixes off the left-hander’s bat telling the world how deep India can bat. And even after Dube got out, Hardik connected a few strong hits as India notched up the highest score in a T20 game on this ground.


One could see that the Bangladesh batters lacked the belief to make a match of it. Still Tanzid Hasan and Nazmul Hosain Shanto did make an effort, till left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav (3/19) came into his own.


India have decided to play him in the West Indies because of the variety that he brings to the table and the help that he gets from these tracks. Kuldeep’s first wicket on Saturday was that of left-hander Tazid Hasan Tamim, who failed to read Kuldeep’s googly to fall leg-before.


Towhid Hridoy, too, missed a sweep off another one that turned in to get trapped right in front. Shakib Al Hasan fell soon enough and Kuldeep’s sumptuous spell of spin bowling was definitely the second highlight of the day.


The Bangladesh batters failed to create any momentum off Kuldeep and the game was over before it was actually over.
Much before that, it was the two superstars of Indian cricket — Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli — who gave glimpses that big scores could be just around the corner.


While Rohit (23 off 11 balls) looked to give himself just that little bit of room and play over the top, Virat (37 off 28 balls) seemed in beautiful touch during the course of his cameo.
On a big ground, 39 off 3.4 is a good start and by the time Rohit got out, after being put in rather surprisingly by the Bangladesh captain, the platform had been set. The fans would have liked Virat to score a little more than what he got, but the super batter isn’t exactly bothered about the number of runs that he is getting. It’s all in a team’s cause and even though it was a moment to remember for medium-pacer Tanzim Shakib when he got Virat bowled, the Indian engine had already started chugging.

India defeats S Africa, wins Cup

June 30, 2024: The Times of India

➤ India score 15 off the 1st over as Kohli races to 14 off 5 balls, but then tumble to 34/3 
 ➤ Kohli goes into a shell as India rebuild, eventually gets to 50 off 48 balls — his slowest T20 half-ton ever. Doesn’t hit a boundary from the 4th over to the 18th 
➤ Promoted to No. 5, Axar Patel responds with a useful 47 off 31 balls but is brilliantly run out by SA keeper Quinton de Kock 
➤ Shivam Dube contributes 27 off 16 balls even as Kohli accelerates at the death before falling for a 59-ball 76 — 1 more than his aggregate of 75 runs in 7 matches before the final 
 ➤ India score 42 runs in the last 3 overs to finish at 176/7, the highest total in a T20 WC final 
➤ Bumrah and Arshdeep strike to reduce SA to 12/2. Tristan Stubbs and de Kock counter-attack, and Heinrich Klaasen slams 52 off 33 balls. Needing 30 to win off 30 balls with 6 wickets in hand, SA seem set for victory. But Hardik Pandya dismisses Klaasen and India begin to extract victory from the jaws of defeat 
 ➤ Bumrah (2/18) and Arshdeep (2/21) bowl superbly at the death. Pandya, booed throughout the IPL, has to defend 16 in the final over 
➤ Suryakumar Yadav pulls off an unbelievable catch to dismiss David Miller. Rabada swings lustily but it’s a Bridge(town) too far for SA 
 Fitting Farewell For Coach Dravid 
Rahul Dravid, who never won a World Cup in a distinguished career as a player, finally bagged a title in his last outing as Team India coach. He leaves with a superb track record: 
 SKY Is Not The Limit 
Catches win matches, goes the maxim. This one won the World Cup. With SA needing 16 in 6 balls, Miller hit Hardik for what looked like a sure sixer till Suryakumar Yadav (SKY) ran full tilt, grabbed the ball, lobbed it into the air as he went over the ropes, and then stepped back to complete a catch that became an instant legend. A couple of inches literally made all the difference for India and See also

Details

Dwaipayan Datta, June 30, 2024: The Times of India

Scoreboard, India vs South Africa, T20 World Cup Finals, 2024
From: Dwaipayan Datta, June 30, 2024: The Times of India

Bridgetown (Barbados) : There was a new sunrise for Indian cricket on the banks of the North Atlantic Ocean. All the agony of losing at the final hurdle is a thing of the past. The balm for years of hurt — that reached its crescendo on Nov 19 last in Ahmedabad when India lost to Australia in the final of the 50-over World Cup — has been provided by a group of brave-hearts who refused to give up.


In lifting the T20 World Cup after 17 long years, India gave Virat Kohli the ultimate T20 farewell as he announced his retirement from the format while accepting the Man of the Match award.


There can be a million moments that you’ll keep talking about all your lives, but the one that will never be forgotten is Suryakumar Yadav’s outstanding catch off the first ball of the 20th over. South Africa needed 16 runs off the last over and Hardik Pandya was the desperate choice. A yorker gone wrong had been hit in the air and it seemed to be going for six, but only until Suryakumar completed a catch that will be remembered as the most memorable, after the one taken by Sreesanth to send Misbah-ul-Haq home off the last ball of the 2007 final.


It was a battle of nerves after that and Hardik, who has gone through so many upheavals in his life recently, kept landing every ball on the spot. As Keshav Maharaj’s last shot went nowhere, Hardik just sat down on the pitch with tears in his eyes. He had redeemed himself and so had Team India.


It wasn’t just the last over. Hardik had the ball in his hand when Heinrich Klaasen and Miller were going great guns. All South Africa needed were 26 off 25 balls. Jasprit Bumrah’s over had been negotiated, the flags were being folded, the journalists were switching their laptops off. Hardik bowled one slightly wide and Klaasen, who probably believed the World Cup was theirs by then, tried a punch that got a nick and went to the wicketkeeper. And that’s where the infamous South African choke started setting in.


A team that had played with remarkable positivity until then started thinking about losing the game. Once such emotions start creeping in, there’s a man in the Indian lineup who can simply hammer you. In came Bumrah for the 18th over and Marco Jansen’s stumps were shattered. South Africa managed virtually nothing from those six balls and that turned the game. South Africa stuttered and stumbled, as they always do. 
And now let’s talk about a man who might not have played this game if the world had had its way. Captain Rohit Sharma had said before the final that Kohli was saving his best for the final. And how the ‘King’ kept his word!


Things had gone wrong for India after they were reduced to 45-3 in the first Powerplay. Kohli (76 off 59 balls), after the first three boundaries that he hit in the first over, struggled to force the pace in the middle. But he didn’t throw his wicket away and held one end up as Axar Patel (47 off 31 balls) played an innings of quality.


At a time when left-arm spinner Maharaj was looking to get on top, Axar took on the slog sweep and attacked the longer boundary, clearing it with ease. Axar and Kohli ran well between the wickets and the partnership of 72 was central to India reaching a score of respectability. Axar was looking for quite a few more, but a moment’s lapse of concentration allowed Quinton de Kock to take an aim at the stumps and break the stumps at the far end.

How India prepared for the victim

Dwaipayan Datta, July 1, 2024: The Times of India

Bridgetown : A beautiful Barbados evening was setting in as the Indian team trooped out of the dressing room. Three hours had gone by since those magical moments had fashioned Indian cricket’s redemption song at Kensington Oval. As a group, for one last time, they walked to the centre wicket — every member of the team, including the support staff — and savoured the moment of history together.


This group has won a lot, but they have endured the most painful defeats that you can think of. The World Test Championship mace was within touching distance but Australia snatched it away at the Oval. The ODI World Cup was a win away but Travis Head decided to have the day of his life in Ahmedabad on Nov 19, 2023. And it was very close to an encore of disappointment on Saturday as well before Heinrich Klaasen’s edge off Hardik Pandya started the South African choke. And when Suryakumar Yadav latched on to David Miller’s skier off the first ball of the 20th over to complete the greatest catch in Indian cricket history since Kapil Dev’s catch to dismiss Viv Richards in the 1983 World Cup final, the Cup was well and truly India’s.


But this World Cup was not won in a day. Outgoing coach Rahul Dravid, after numerous requests to come for a chat, revealed how the planning had started long back. “It was way back in Sept 2021 that ideas started forming. We worked on it over the years, and here we are, on this beautiful Barbados afternoon,” Dravid said.

Template decided after 2023 ODI WC defeat

While there were serious efforts made to push the needle while batting, the defeat in the 2023 ODI World Cup final was a cruel blow for these bravehearts in blue. But as the management tried to deal with disappointment, a template was forged over the next few months.


It was decided that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma would open the batting and it would not change unless there’s an injury to any one of them. Four allrounders were included and add to that three left-arm spinners — something that’s not exactly common in any form of cricket.


Rohit explained why these unique methods were followed as India went after the prize that has been eluding them for so long. “See, allrounders needed to add depth. We wanted to see how we could cover all bases, how we could get bowlers who can swing the ball in the beginning and reverse it in the end. Chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar had a big role to play in it and the BCCI allowed us to do what we wanted to do. They put a lot of faith in the team and that worked,” Rohit said.
While it was a moment of redemption for a team, there are a few in the group for whom it meant a little more. Dravid had never won a World Cup as a player, and he described as “a memory of a lifetime” for him. Hardik had gone through incredible upheavals on personal and professional front. He seemed to have answered all those both with the bat and the ball. “Yes, a lot of people have said a lot of things about me without probably knowing me. It’s fine, here I am now in front of you guys, being able to do what I was asked to do by the team,” Hardik, who could well be India’s next T20 captain, said, with the World Cup in his hand.


And then, there’s a Virat. The greatest T20 batter ever for India was having a torrid time in this World Cup till it all turned around in the final. Battling form, the champion played a match-winning knock that won him the Man of the Match award in the last T20 game of his career. Virat was happy. He was signing autographs, obliging all those who wanted selfies, but when there was a request for a farewell chat, he smiled: “Talking is not my forte. Playing is.”


Many of them are exiting the Indian T20 set up. Coach Rahul Dravid had announced before the tournament that this would be his last stint. Virat Kohli said goodbye to the format at the prize distribution ceremony. When TOI asked Rohit Sharma about his thoughts on his T20 career, the captain said: “This is the moment for me to leave this format. I hadn’t thought of it before, but the way things shaped up, this is the time to go.”

The Super 8

The Super 8 of the T20 World Cup 2024
From: June 18, 2024: The Times of India

See graphic:

The Super 8 of the T20 World Cup 2024

India’s Top Seven

Avijit Ghosh, July 1, 2024: The Times of India

Led by Rohit Sharma, India delivered a triumphant performance on June 29, securing a memorable victory in the T20 World Cup. While the success was a collective effort, seven individuals played pivotal roles in the team's journey to glory. In the final showdown against South Africa in Barbados, India posted a competitive total of 176 for 7. The bowlers then showcased their prowess, restricting the opposition to 169 for 8 in the final over, sealing a thrilling seven-run win.

Fighters, heroes, champions, Rohit Sharma and his team gave India one of its most joyous cricketing moments on Saturday night. The T20 World Cup triumph was a team effort but overall, seven men stood taller than the rest.

1. ROHIT SHARMA

He was in woeful batting form in IPL & stripped of MI captaincy. But cometh the hour, cometh the man! As in ODI World Cup, Rohit again put the team before himself.He played with abandon and flow; his strike rate was a staggering 157 and he scored 257 runs, highest in the squad. More importantly, as commentators said, he exuded craft and calm in captaincy executing dressing room plans to perfection. His ebullience at the top will be as missed as his captaincy

Do You Know? His 24 fours and 15 sixes were the highest in the team.

2. SURYAKUMAR YADAV

In 1999, South Africa had dropped the World Cup. Thanks to Yadav, India didn’t. His once-in-a-generation catch in the deep was as memorable as Kapil Dev’s backward sprint and grab of Vivian Richards’. ‘SKY’ had the pressure of living up to his rank as world’s no. 1 T20 batter. His knocks against USA and England were vital to the team’s cause. And his destructive intervention served India well against Australia (31 off 16) and Afghanistan (53 off 28)

Do You Know? He scored 60% of his runs in fours and sixes.

3. HARDIK PANDYA

He rewrote his life story at the World Cup. A foot injury had forced Pandya to quit 2023 ODI WC midway. His MI transfer and captaincy became a huge controversy; his IPL form the subject of cruel digs. But the 30-year-old all-rounder underlined why he is irreplaceable. He scored runs at an electrifying pace (strike rate: 151)

this WC and mixed his pace to claim 11 wickets while breaking partnerships and providing vital breakthroughs

Top Moment: His 3/20 included the game changing wickets of Klaasen and Miller in the final

4. AXAR PATEL

His aggressive batting and sharp left-arm spin provided India’s most serendipitous moments in the championship. He knifed through England’s top and middle order (3/23), helped India regain momentum with the bat (47 off 31, 4 sixes) in the final and against Pakistan. He arrived as a utility player, left as a premium all-rounder Top Moment: His breathtaking catch of Oz captain Mitchell Marsh swung the game India’s way

5. KULDEEP YADAV

The thrashing in the final aside, the joyful ‘chinaman’ with curly hair delighted India cricket lovers with his subtle guile and craft from Super 8 onwards. Was at his best breaking England’s back in the semis

Top Moment: The delivery that bowled England’s Harry Brook around the legs can be watched on a loop

6. JASPRIT BUMRAH

He played eight games and was unplayable in each of them. Every batter handled him like expensive glass, with utmost care, and yet all were bamboozled by his video game-like craft. Bumrah is the world’s best paceman, and by a mile. Nobody has his deception, movement, variation, a lethal cocktail that earned him 15 wickets at 8.2 runs apiece for an astonishing economy rate of 4.2. He was The Man of this WC. His ER is the best ever in a T20 WC by a bowler to deliver at least 20 overs

Top Moment: Too many. But most notably the wickets of Mohammad Rizwan (Pakistan), Phil Salt (England), Reeza Hendricks and Marco Jansen (SA). All bowled.

7. ARSHDEEP SINGH

The 25-year-old Chandigarh-born claimed the second pacer’s spot exploiting the sharp movement and bounce of USA’s uneven pitches and proved to be an admirable foil to Bumrah. His 17 wickets, which made him the tournament’s joint-highest wicket-taker with Afghanistan’s Fazalhaq Farooqi, is also the joint-highest of any T20 WC.

Top Moment: Dismissals of the dangerous Tim David and Mathew Wade (Australia) in one over.

THEY ALSO SERVED WITH MERIT

Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja and Shivam Dube also had their moments. Pant’s 42 off 31 against Pakistan on a treacherous pitch was invaluable.

Squad members Sanju Samson, Yuzvendra Chahal and Yashasvi Jaiswal didn’t get a game.

COACH: RAHUL DRAVID got the best out of his wards, finishing his tenure on a high note.

BEST FOR THE LAST

VIRAT KOHLI: Before the final, his scores were: 1, 4, 0, 24, 37, 0, 9. Balance and focus are his forte. But Kohli, who scored runs by the bagful at IPL 2024, seemed to lose both at the WC. It turned out he had reserved his best for the final. His 76 off 59 balls against SA was more than his total in 7 earlier innings: 75. India will miss his class and reassuring presence in the game’s shortest version Do You Know? Kohli has 16 MoMs in T20I, a world record. Eight of them at WC, again highest for anyone.

Financial rewards, 2024 and 1983

Gaurav Gupta, July 1, 2024: The Times of India

Mumbai : In times when cricketers make news for making money when they are sold for huge sums in the IPL auction, Team India’s victorious cricketers have just broken the bank after winning the T20 World Cup.


In a move which reflects why BCCI is a financial superpower in the cricketing world and calls the shots in the game, board secretary Jay Shah announced prize money of Rs 125 crore for Team India. 
“The team has showcased exceptional talent, determination, and sportsmanship throughout the tournament.

Congratulations to all the players, coaches, and support staff for this outstanding achievement!” Shah posted on X.


“Under the exceptional leadership of Rohit Sharma, this team has shown remarkable resolve and resilience, becoming the first team in the history of the ICC T20 World Cup to win the tournament unbeaten. They have faced and silenced their critics with stellar performances time and again,” Shah added.

Each player in the team may get 5cr as reward

The massive booty of Rs 125 crore awarded to players and support staff tells you about the BCCI’s unbridled joy at Team India finally ending a desperate wait for its first T20 World Cup title since 2007, the first World Cup crown since 2011, and the first ICC title since 2013.


It’s not clear how this massive prize money will get distributed amongst the players and the support staff. India had picked a 15-member squad, with four reserve players, for the Cup. The roughly 15-member support staff was led by head coach Rahul Dravid, and included the batting (Vikram Rathour), bowling (Paras Mhambrey) and fielding coach (T Dilip). Then, there were three throwdown specialists, three physios (two initially, and then another one flew on after one fell ill), one trainer, manager, logistics manager, the video analyst, security and integrity officer. There could still be more members of the support staff added to this list.


It is estimated that all the 15 players of the squad could end up receiving at least Rs 5 crores each, while the four reserve players and the members of the support staff too will receive at least Rs 1 crore.


It is learnt that the prize money amount is more than six times of what the team received from the ICC ($2.45 mil- lion, or Rs 20.37 crore) for winning the World Cup.


Compare this to what the then much financially weaker BCCI rewarded to ‘Kapil’s Devils’ 41 years ago for upsetting the mighty West Indies at Lord’s on June 25 to win India’s maiden limited overs World Cup! Recently, at an event in Mumbai, former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar, who was a member of that team, recalled, “When we won the World Cup in 1983, the then BCCI president, NKP Salve, announced a prize money of Rs 25,000 per player. At that point, when Lata Mangeshkar (legendary singer) heard that we would get this prize money, she said: ‘I’ll have an evening (concert) for the players, and subsequently, she had an evening for the players in Delhi, and we received a cheque of Rs 1 lakh each for the first time in our lives!”


However, in 2024, a time where the players have often been accused of prioritising the IPL over national duty, this kind of a sum, while it appears a tad extravagant at first, is par for the course. “In the age of the IPL, where players are paid handsomely by their franchises, Rs 125 crore to a team for winning the T20 World Cup is a simple message to the players — win trophies for India and you’ll be cash-rich,” a BCCI member told TOI.

Six Indians in ICC’s ‘Team of the Tournament’

July 2, 2024: The Times of India

Dubai : The International Cricket Council has picked six Indians in its ‘Team of the Tournament’ for the just concluded T20 World Cup but there was no place for star batter Virat Kohli, who played a match-winning knock in the final against South Africa. In his new role as an opener, Kohli had an underwhelming World Cup before rising to the occasion in the big final where he was adjudged man-of-the-match for his 59-ball 76.


India pipped South Africa by seven runs in a sensational comeback in the death overs to win their second T20 World Cup title after 17 years. The ICC XI featured Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel and two pacers in Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh. 
Rohit led from the front with 257 runs at a splendid strike-rate of 156.7 to his name. He was the second most leading run-getter after Afghanistan’s Rahmanullah Gurbaz. The Player of the Tournament and India’s trump card in their title win, Bumrah returned with 15 wickets. But more than his wickets, his impact in restricting the scoring rate of teams made Bumrah India’s most important player right through the tournament. His economy rate of 4.17 was the best ever by any bowler in a single edition of the T20 World Cup.


Following their historic semifinal finish, Afghanistan found three players in the ICC team, including left-arm quick Fazalhaq Farooqi, who topped the wicket-takers chart jointly with Arshdeep (17 wickets each). Wicketkeeper-batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who topped the runs scorers’ list with 281 runs as an opener for Afghanistan, also found a place alongside skipper Rashid Khan. The crafty leg-spinner brilliantly led Afghanistan in their historic run and returned with 14 wickets with a tidy economy of 6.17.


Team: Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh (all Indians); Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rashid Khan, Fazalhaq Farooqi (Afghanistan); Marcus Stoinis (Australia) and Nicholas Pooran (West Indies); 12th man: Anrich Nortje. PTI