10-years ago, on this day India won T20 World Cup
A young Indian cricket team lifted the inaugural World T20 by defeating arch-rivals Pakistan on this day, 10 years ago. Led by MS Dhoni, the team entered the tournament as under-dogs, with an experience of playing just one T20 international. Let us revisit some of the special moments of this tournament and look what the Indian team has achieved since that extraordinary win.
India's top players Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly decided not to play the tournament after a poor show at 2007 50-over World Cup, where India crashed out of the group stage. This led to MS Dhoni becoming the captain of the T20 team.
India's first match against Scotland was abandoned due to rain, and they played their first World T20 match against Pakistan. Robin Uthappa's half-century helped India score 141 runs, but the match ended in a tie with Pakistan's Misbah-ul-Haq outperforming Indian bowlers. In the bowl-outs, India won the match 3-0, as Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Robin Uthappa hit the target.
Yuvraj Singh entered his name in cricket history as he hit six sixes in one over off Stuart Broad in the second Super 8 match against England. He also scored the fastest fifty in just 12 balls, a record which is still unbroken.
Dhoni stuck to his policy of selecting to bat first after winning the toss and then backing the bowlers to defend the total. The final match was no different and India scored 157 runs, with Gambhir scoring 75. Misbah was once again the danger man, but the final over by Joginder Sharma took away the match from Pakistan, giving India's their maiden T20 title.
While India have not been able to retain World T20 title, MS Dhoni still remains the captain with most wins, with 41 wins from 72 matches. He also has 67 dismissals to his name, the most by any wicket-keeper in T20 internationals. Virat Kohli is the third highest run scorer in T20 internationals with 1830 runs, behind Brendon McCullum (2140) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (1889).
