2007 ICC World Twenty20 Final

Background

Prior to this match, these two teams faced each other for only time which was too in the same tournament. That Group D match ended in a tie but in order to satisfy the then ICC rule the winner of the match decided by Bowl-out where India beat Pakistan 3-0.

Road to the Final

India qualified for the Super 8s being the champions of Group D. They won against Pakistan (India won in bowl-out against Pakistan) and their match against Scotland was abandoned without a ball bowled due to rain. In Super 8 stage India was the topper of group E with wins against England and South Africa and a loss to New Zealand. India beat the ODI World Cup champions of that time, Australia in the semi-final to reach the final

Pakistan qualified for Super 8s from Group D where they finished second behind India. They won against Scotland but lost to India. Pakistan was potted in the Group F of Super 8. They faced Sri Lanka, Australia and Bangladesh there and won against everyone to reach the semifinal stage as group champions. Pakistan qualified the finals by beating New Zealand in the semifinal.

Team Composition

Indian team was almost the same as of their team for semi final against Australia. Just one changes were made. Yusuf Pathan was in the squad on for Virender Sehwag who was unavailable for fitness issues

Pakistan team also had one changes in their squad for the final, from their team against New Zealand at semifinal. They dropped Fawad Alam from the team and Yasir Arafat replaced that place.

Match Officials

Simon Taufel and Mark Benson was on field umpires and Daryl Harper was the third umpire. Ranjan Madugalle was selected as the match referee of this match.

Toss

India won the toss and decided to bat first

Indian Innings

India was on the charge from the beginning of their innings when debutante Yusuf Pathan started aggressively. But he was the first to fall for 15 runs. Then Indian scoring rate was going down. Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni all departed soon while Gambhir was stuck to the other end. His 75 from 56 and Rohit Sharma's 30 not out of 16 at last stage took India to 157-5 in 20 overs. Umar Gul took 3-28 to be the best performer for Pakistan.

Pakistan Innings

Pakistan suffered an early blow when Mohammad Hafeez was dismissed in the first over, and Kamran Akmal fell for a duck soon afterwards. then soon Yonis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Yasir Arafat departed to make Pakistan 104-7. But Misbah was not out at the other end. In the last over of the match Pakistan needed 13 runs to win the match and Misbah was still there. A six from Misbah took Pakistan to 152-9 and Pakistan's chance was then very good. But a shocking shot from Misbah washed all the hopes of Pakistan. He was dismissed for 43 by Joginder Sharma and Pakistan was all out for 152. Irfan Pathan and RP Singh was the best performer from Indian side by taking 3 wickets each.

Scorecard

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

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)

Player of the Match: I K Pathan (India)
Player of the Tournament: Shahid Afridi (Pakistan)
Umpires: M R Benson (England) and S J A Taufel (Australia)
TV Umpire: D J Harper (Australia)
Match Referee: R S Madugalle (Sri Lanka)
Reserve Umpire: B R Doctrove (West Indies)