BARBADOS: A fine exhibition of death bowling by trio of Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya and stupendous knocks by Virat Kohli and Axar Patel helped India end their ICC trophy drought, securing their second ICC T20 World Cup title by beating South Africa by seven runs in a thrilling final at Barbados.
Proteas have once again left heartbroken, yet to win an ICC title. Meanwhile, India has ended its 11-year long ICC trophy drought, winning their first ICC title since the Champions Trophy in 2013.
India is the first team to have captured the title undefeated.
In the run chase of 177 runs, South Africa was off to a poor start as pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh struck early.
While Bumrah cleaned up Reeza Hendricks for four runs, Arshdeep got skipper Aiden Markram got caught behind by Rishabh Pant for four runs as well. SA was 12/2 in 2.3 overs.
Following these two early hiccups, Tristan Stubbs and Quinton de Kock started punishing Indian spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel.
At the end of six overs, SA was 42/2, with de Kock (20*) and Stubbs (12*) unbeaten.
With a well-placed boundary against Kuldeep, SA reached the 50-run mark in 7.1 overs.
This counter-attacking partnership between Stubbs and de Kock ended with Axar getting the best of his Delhi Capitals (DC) teammate Stubbs for 31 in 21 balls, with three fours and a six. Proteas was 70/3 in 8.5 overs.
Brief score: India 176/7 (Virat Kohli 76, Axar Patel 47; Keshav Maharaj 2-23) defeat South Africa: 169/8 (Heinrich Klaasen 52, Quinton de Kock 39, Hardik Pandya 3/20).
(ANI)
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