Indiyeaaahhhhh!

There was hysteria plenty in the Twenty20 finals. It wasclose, so very close. In the end, it came down to the wire, as indeed it was inevitablethat it would. It was in the fitness of the things perhaps for the match to have been capable of going either way till the third ball of the last over.

To be honest, the bravado and braggadocio had diminished a bit after India ended with only 157 off their 20 overs with both Yuvraj and Dhoni not quite contributing whatpeople have come to expect from them. So if there was some disappointment, therewas also the consolation that Gautam Gambhir and young Rohit Sharma had stood upto be counted. But the soaring spirits had sunk more than a tad when Pakistan launched into a great start. Yet, there was hope. And some attempted consolation by repeated reminders that India had never lost to Pakistan in any World Cup encounter before. Maybe it was just the collective will of a million heartbeats beating together.

In some ways, it was a flashback to Kapil Dev's famous exhortation to histeammates in the 1983 finals when India had been restricted to 183."We have scored the runs," he had said. "And they have to scorethem. Let's go out and enjoy." And in more ways than one, Dhoni seemed tohave been echoing Kapil throughout this tournament.

But the tension was palpable. Roads were deserted. Offices had been vacated early. The firecrackers had been bought and stored in anticipation of a historic win which somehow had been taken for granted ever since Yuvraj hit those record six sixes.Yet there was also an undercurrent of nervous energy and barely concealed hint of a fear of a possibility that things could go wrong.

And for sometime it did seem as if they would. As if they had. As if the plot had been lost. But in the end, the young Indian team held its nerve. It was Pakistan that blinked. And buckled under the mounting pressure.

But it was oh-so close.

Pakistan could well have won the match in which fortunes fluctuated wildly from one team to the other till the third ball of the last over when Pakistan innings finally folded up. For 152. With just three balls to spare. When S Sreesanth caught a dangerous Misbah-ul-Haq off Joginder Sharma.

Pakistan had just needed 6 more runs to win. But it was India that had won its first major title in over two decades. By five runs.

And to think that it had seemed all but over in the 17th over when Misbah-ul-Haq clobbered Harbhajan Singh for three sixes. Pakistan were 104 -7, needing 54 runs from the last four overs with only three wickets in hand and India seemed to have the upper hand. This is when Harbhajan Singh came to bowl his third over (17th of the innings) with Misbah-ul-Haq on strike. This is how it went:

16.1 Harbhajan Singh to Misbah-ul-Haq, wide, 53 runs required in 24 balls
16.1 Harbhajan Singh to Misbah-ul-Haq, dot ball - 53 in 23
16.2 Harbhajan Singh to Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 - 47 in 22
16.3 Harbhajan Singh to Misbah-ul-Haq, dot ball - 47 in 21
16.4 Harbhajan Singh to Misbah-ul-Haq, dot ball - 47 in 20
16.5 Harbhajan Singh to Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 - 41 in 19
16.6 Harbhajan Singh to Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 - 35 in 18

With three more overs to go, Pakistan now needed 35 runs with three wickets in hand when S Sreesanth came to bowl.

17.1 Sreesanth to Sohail Tanvir, 6 - 29 in 17
17.2 Sreesanth to Sohail Tanvir, wide - 28 in 17
17.2 Sreesanth to Sohail Tanvir, leg bye, 1 - 27 in 16
17.3 Sreesanth to Misbah-ul-Haq, dot ball - 27 in 15
17.4 Sreesanth to Misbah-ul-Haq, 1 run - 26 in 14
17.5 Sreesanth to Sohail Tanvir, 6 - 20 in 13
17.6 Sreesanth to Sohail Tanvir, Out - 20 in 12

After another productive over, Pakistan were 20-run away from the win but now had two wickets in hand and two overs at their disposal when RP Singh came to bowl.

18.1 RP Singh to Misbah-ul-Haq, 1 run - 19 in 11
18.2 RP Singh to Umar Gul, bye 1 - 18 in 10
18.3 RP Singh to Misbah-ul-Haq, dot ball - 18 in 9
18.4 RP Singh to Misbah-ul-Haq, leg bye 1 - 17 in 8
18.5 RP Singh to Umar Gul, Out - 17 in 7, last wkt
18.6 RP Singh to Mohammad Asif, 4 - 13 in 6

Pakistan needed 13 runs from the last over. "Harbhajan was not sure of getting his yorkers right so I decided to give the last over to Joginder, who wanted to make a name for himself in international cricket," Dhoni was to say later. After the clobbering in the 17th over, who could blame Harbhajan? Or Dhoni, for that matter. Obviously, the ghosts of another Sharma [Chetan] bowling the crucial last over to a Pakistani batsman [Javed Miandad] have long been laid to rest. Or perhaps this team is just too young to have any such bad, lingering memories. Joginder Sharmn had bowled the final over in the semi-final victory over Australia, when they had needed 22 runs. But the pressure this time around was telling, as he started the over with a wide:

19.1 Joginder Sharma to Misbah-ul-Haq, wide - 12 in 6
19.1 Joginder Sharma to Misbah-ul-Haq, dot ball - 12 in 5
19.2 Joginder Sharma to Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 - 6 in 4
19.3 Joginder Sharma to Misbah-ul-Haq, OUT!

Sreesanth had caught the Twenty20 world cup in his hands,

The firecrackers could be heard loud and clearthrough out the country, echoing and reverberating through all the TV channelsas well. Not that they needed any amplification. Or televised transmission.Brass-bands. Wild, loud drum-beats. Dhols. Crackers. It was all in theair.

It was in some ways a match and a tournament that the whole country had willed to be won together. Nobody would care to remember later that Misbah had made 43 off 38 balls with 4 sixes and at one moment had almost single-handedly, as if, won the cup for Pakistan. Shoaib Malik was later to say, "I asked him about the shot which got him out at the end of the game. He said he was intending to play down the ground and wound up towards that effect, but somehow ended up playing that paddle at the last minute. It's just one of those things."

Indeed. It was one of those things. One of those things that were ultimately the difference between India winning or losing the tournament. One of those things that in the end ensured wild celebrations in India and almost a national mourning in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the Chak De star Shahrukh Khan was on the ground to celebrate with the team. It was a Chak-De moment indeed.

The Indian captain was justifiably ecstatic :"I am very excited and congratulate and thank my teammates for their response to my captaincy". But he was also to remember the ignominy and the wounds after the early exit from the World Cup in the Caribbean earlier this year: "This would do some repair work in that direction but we need to continue the good work in the coming series against Australia and Pakistan. The Twenty20 format will now catch on in India." As indeed it should. After all it was this very youngster's house that had been vandalised by lumpens after India's early exit from the world cup earlier this year.

Man of the match Irfan Pathan could not have asked for a better comeback match. He was the one who put the skids under the Pakistan batting with a spell of 3-16 in four overs after they had got off to a rollicking start. In 22 overs in the competition, Pathan took 10 wickets for 149, conceding runs at a more than acceptable economy rate of 6.77. His dismissals of Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik (8) and big hitter Shahid Afridi (0) within a space of three deliveries was to prove crucial in the end. "It is a great feeling to make such a comeback. It is amazing. There was pressure all around us but we held our nerve and performed under pressure," he was to say later ... I am happiest that we won the World Cup, and I am delighted that my brother made his debut as well. We are playing together after a long time, I don't even remember the last occasion," he was to add.

Earlier, RP Singh had made the initial inroads for India -- he took 3 for 26 Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik was to single him out for praise: "The way he bowled up front, and in the 19th over, was tremendous. I didn't get to face him this time, but from what I have seen of him here, he is a vastly different bowler to the one I played against last year. He is quicker and his line and length were just outstanding."

RP Singh gave India a perfect start removing Mohammad Hafeez (1) and Kamran Akmal (0) off successive overs in the 1st and 3rd over of the innings but, in between, Imran Nazir did a lot of damage taking 21 runs off Sreesanth's first over. Hafeez was caught at first slip by Uthappa while Akmal played across and lost his leg stump.

Imran Nazir roughed up Sreesanth with his audacious strokeplay in his very first over smashing him for two sixes and two fours. The first ball went over cover for a four, the second ball went over mid-wicket for a six, the third ball again went for a six over thirdman and the 5th ball was whacked over point for another boundary.

Luckily for India, they got him out of the way in the sixth over when Robin Uthappa's direct hit from mid-off saw him short of the crease by inches. The Pakistan captain was to call his dismissal the turning point of the game: "Imran Nazir has been our in-form batsman in this tournament and he was batting very well today. Then, he started to struggle with his groin. We lost early wickets, but his run our was the turning point. Had he not been run out, we would have won easily," he was to rue later.

Younis Khan became the fourth casualty in the innings when he holed out in the deep to Joginder Sharma for 24. At 78 for 6 after 12 overs, Pakistan needed 80 runs off 48 balls at 10 runs per over with just 4 wickets in hand. And when Irfan Pathan bowled Yaseer Arafat in the 16th over, Pakistan needed 53 runs from 4 overs with just three wickets to go. The rest, as you have read above, is already history.

Before that, Gautam Gambhir slammed a rollicking 75 and young Rohit Sharma (30 not out) was the only other notable contributor as the Indians found the going tough in the face of some disciplined bowling. Paceman Umar Gul played a big role in upsetting the tempo with a brilliant effort of 3 for 28 in his four overs, capturing the prized scalps of Yuvraj Singh (14), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (6) and Gambhir. Virender Sehwag had to sit out because of a groin injury.

India was 69 for 2 after 10 overs and added only 87 runs in their next 10. In fact, India scored only 47 runs in their last 5 overs. India won the toss and batted on a good pitch. Yusuf Pathan, Irfan's elder brother, began by hitting a six, and then soon square drove Asif for a boundary in his second over, but the bowler had his revenge by dismissing him on the next ball when the Indian top edged a pull shot for Shoaib Malik to take the skier at mid-on. He made 15 off 8 balls.

Robin Uthappa lasted just 11 balls before he fell trying to go over cover to Sohail Tanvir, didn't hit it sweetly and was caught by Shahid Afridi at cover for 8. Yuvraj, whose blazing innings against England and Australia provided a spark to the Indian innings, failed to rise to the occasion. In fact, he was rather subdued during his 19-ball stay before being dismissed in the 14th over for 14. He hit just one boundary before top edging a big hit off Umar Gul for the bowler to take an easy return catch.

Dhoni was done in by some aggressive bowling by Gul who was 'no-balled' for a beamer on the first ball. He still followed it with another short delivery. And then on the third ball, Dhoni went for a big heave, missed, and his leg stump went flying to the great delight of the Pakistan side.