The foundation ICC World T20 took place in South Africa in 2007. India was on a brink of a transformation path after a catastrophic departure from the ICC World Cup 2007 held in West Indies. All of a sudden, MS Dhoni was handed over the job to lead the team in this tournament. The team was well equipped with Stars like Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, Ajit Agarkar and Gautam Gambhir.
India’s Victory Over Pakistan in ICC World T20I 2007 Final Relived by Indian Cricket Fans, Twitter on Fire with Posts Celebrating MS Dhoni and Boys’ Triumph #OnThisDay #12YearsOfCaptainDhoni @BCCI @T20WorldCup @ImRo45 @IrfanPathan @virendersehwag https://t.co/gVK31dSIpe
— LatestLY (@latestly) September 24, 2019
India’s first match against Scotland was abandoned without a ball being thrown.
The second and decisive match that India played was against rivals Pakistan. The match went till the last bowl tied as scores were leveled. And it became the first match which was decided by bowl out eat as India beat Pakistan in a bowl out by 3-0.After winning this match against Pakistan, India qualified for the super-eight stage. India were placed with New Zealand, South Africa and England here.
India’s Road to the ICC T20 World Cup 2007 final’s
| Date | Teams | Stage | Venue | Result |
| 13-Sep-07 | IND v SCO | Group | Durban | No Result (Match Abandoned) |
| 14-Sep-07 | IND v PAK | Group | Durban | Match tied (India won the bowl-out) |
| 16-Sep-07 | IND v NZ | Super 8 | Johannesburg | NZ won by 10 runs |
| 19-Sep-07 | IND v ENG | Super 8 | Durban | IND won by 18 runs |
| 20-Sep-07 | IND v SA | Super 8 | Durban | IND won by 37 runs |
| 22-Sep-07 | IND v AUS | 2nd Semi Final | Durban | IND won by 15 runs |
| 24-Sep-07 | IND v PAK | Final | Johannesburg | IND won by 5 runs |
The viewers couldn’t have demanded for a better final of the inaugural ICC World T20. It was India against Pakistan. India beat Pakistan by five runs to win the World Twenty20. Gautam Gambhir was the star with the bat for India, hitting 75 off 54 balls which helped India to get the decent total of 157 for 5 against a aggressive Pakistani fielding performance in the field, but Rohit Sharma’s unbeaten 16-ball 30 proved a vital at the end.
MS Dhoni chose to bat first and India scored 157 runs where Gautam Gambhir scored a half century in the process. But before this Chasing the total, Pakistan were left tottering at 77 for 6. Everybody thought that India would win the match quite comfortably but Misabh-ul-Haq had strategy of his own as he helped Pakistan to take the match in the final over where they required just 13 runs off 6 balls.
Harbhajan Singh was left with one over but instead Dhoni handed over the ball to Joginder Sharma. The first ball went for a wide, the next was a dot delivery and the third went for a six to reduce the asking rate. Pakistan was now left with a deficit of 6 runs off 4 balls. But a shot from Misbah traumatized Pakistan’s chances to win the 2007 World T20. He hit this delivery straight into the hands of Sreesanth’s and Pakistan was all-out for 152.
Score Card of the final for both teams:
| India innings | ||||||
| Player | Status | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | SR |
| G Gambhir | c Mohammad Asif b Umar Gul | 75 | 54 | 8 | 2 | 138.9 |
| Y Pathan | c Shoaib Malik b Mohammad Asif | 15 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 187.5 |
| R Uthappa | c Shahid Afridi b Sohail Tanvir | 8 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 72.72 |
| Y Singh | c & b Umar Gul | 14 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 73.68 |
| M S Dhoni | b Umar Gul | 6 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 60 |
| RP Sharma | not out | 30 | 16 | 2 | 1 | 187.5 |
| I Pathan | not out | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 100 |
| Extras | (lb 1; w 4; nb 1) | 6 | ||||
| Total | (5 wickets; 20 overs) | 157 | 13 | 4 | ||
Fall of wickets: 1-25 (Y K Pathan, 2.4 ov), 2-40 (Uthappa, 5.4 ov), 3-103 (Yuvraj Singh, 13.3 ov), 4-111 (Dhoni, 15.2 ov), 5-130 (Gambhir, 17.6 ov)
Did not bat: Harbhajan Singh, Joginder Sharma, S Sreesanth, R P Singh
| Pakistan innings (Target: 158 runs from 20 overs) | ||||||
| Player | Status | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | SR |
| M Hafeez | c Uthappa b Singh | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 33.33 |
| Imran Nazir | run out (Uthappa) | 33 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 235.7 |
| Kamran Akmal | b Singh | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Younis Khan | c Y Pathan b J Sharma | 24 | 24 | 4 | 0 | 100 |
| Shoaib Malik | c Sharma b I K Pathan | 8 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 47.05 |
| Misbah-ul-Haq | c Sreesanth b J Sharma | 43 | 38 | 0 | 4 | 113.2 |
| Shahid Afridi | c Sreesanth b I Pathan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Yasir Arafat | b I Pathan | 15 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 136.4 |
| Sohail Tanvir | b Sreesanth | 12 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 300 |
| Umar Gul | b Singh | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| M Asif | not out | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 400 |
| Extras | (b 1; lb 4; w 6; nb 1) | 12 | ||||
| Total | (all out; 19.3 overs) | 152 | 11 | 8 | ||
Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Mohammad Hafeez, 0.5 ov), 2-26 (Kamran Akmal, 2.3 ov), 3-53 (Imran Nazir, 5.4 ov), 4-65 (Younis Khan, 8.3 ov), 5-76 (Shoaib Malik, 11.3 ov), 6-77 (Shahid Afridi, 11.4 ov), 7-104 (Yasir Arafat, 15.6 ov), 8-138 (Sohail Tanvir, 17.6 ov), 9-141 (Umar Gul, 18.5 ov), 10-152 (Misbah-ul-Haq, 19.3 ov)
