Even though bowlers like the comeback kid Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh had played T20 cricket in England and brought their experience to bear, bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad's inputs to the bowlers were critical. Rudra Pratap Singh and Pathan were India's bowlers of the tournament, allowing themselves not more than one below-average game. As Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik said after the final, R.P. Singh has developed enormously as a new ball bowler from the time he made his Test debut in Faisalabad early last year. "He has added a couple of yards of pace and bowls a very good line and length," Malik said. As for Irfan, he has come back from a spell in the wilderness, his technical niggles sorted out, hungry and eager. Pathan found that magic at a critical moment in the final. S. Sreesanth was all pent-up aggression in the semi-final against Australia and made the difference between the two sides, while Harbhajan Singh gladly took charge of bowling some pressure overs. And, coming in for a lacklustre Ajit Agarkar in the last four games, Joginder Sharma made an impact too, handling the task of bowling the last over in the semi-final and final. "I always believe when players have been selected, they have to be given an opportunity," cricket manager Lalchand Rajput said. "It is easy to label someone that he is not good enough but unless you go and see, you will not be able to find out. Give them big games and see if they can handle the pressure. Joginder handled that very well when he bowled the last over in our last two games," he says.
One of the good things about this side is that Dhoni did not have to hide any of his fielders. "When a team fields like we did consistently throughout the tournament, we tend to add to our total. If we make 150, we are actually challenging the opposition to make 165 to win. We have had a runout in nearly every game and that helped us," says Dhoni. Yuvraj Singh produced a direct hit against Pakistan in Durban to see Kamran Akmal's back, Rohit Sharma sprinted from cover and broke the stumps when he was in mid-air to send South Africa's danger man Justin Kemp back to the dugout, while Robin Uthappa produced the magic from extra cover to cut short Imran Nazir's blitz in the final game. And who can forget the catch that Dinesh Kaarthick took at second slip to dismiss South African captain Graeme Smith. Fielding coach Robin Singh could break into a smile at the manner in which the young team rallied to his demands.