India has been trying hard to win an ICC trophy from past 5 years and they failed after excruciatingly coming close. In CWC 2023, they dominated entire tournament and failed in the finals. In T20 WC 2022, they fell short against England in Semi-Final. Now, they got revenge from Australia and England in T20 World Cup 2024, in back to back matches.
Coming into the final, India wanted their big gun, Virat Kohli to fire after his disappointing turnouts. They got what they wished for but best batter Captain Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav failed on the big occasion. Earlier, Indian captain won the toss and elected to bat first. South Africa bowlers looked a bit nervous, mainly, Marco Jansen. Virat Kohli took him to tethers in the first over.
As India looked in full swing with 23/0 in 1.3 overs, Rohit Sharma(9) got out pushing for another big shot. In the same over, Rishabh Pant(0) also got out to left arm spinner Keshav Maharaj. Immediately, Suryakumar Yadav(3) also fell trying for an aggressive shot. Axar Patel came to the middle and he kept taking chances at the other end with Virat playing in circumspect manner.
Axar Patel scored 47 runs from 31 balls and Virat Kohli went on to score his fifty in the final. But Kohli did not press on the peddle till Axar got out and till innings reached 18th over. He took on bowlers after completing 50 and got out on 76 runs from 59 balls. Shivam Dube could get some hits and scored 27 runs from 16 balls. Hence, India managed a huge 176/7 from their 20 overs.
Interestingly, this is the highest score in any T20 World Cup Final till date. India needs some special efforts from their bowlers to stop South African batters who know Indian bowlers in and out from playing in IPL for many years. As South Africa is finding ways to overcome challenges, they need big score ever to be chased down to win their first ever ICC trophy.
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