History makers at home: Surya & Co become first team to defend T20 crown

AHMEDABAD, MAR 8 : The excelsis of India’s batting innings came off the 119th legal delivery they faced. It was a dot ball. Shivam Dube turned down a single. At the other end, Tilak Varma was halfway down the pitch before he was disdainfully sent back by his partner. 

The boffins in the team will have agreed with Dube’s decision to face the final ball. He averages more against pace at the death when compared to Varma. He also has more power. Off the final ball of the innings, Dube swatted a short Jimmy Neesham delivery between mid-off and cover. He had used his long reach to get a decent connection.

To turn down a single when playing with a bowler is one thing. To do it when your partner is a specialist batter is borderline chutzpah. But the one thing this team has done since winning the last World Cup is batting chutzpah. It even made the host broadcaster run a ‘300 Alert’ throughout the group stages of this tournament.

Indian cricket team players celebrate after the win on Sunday

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300 wasn’t breached but it’s no surprise that their batting delivered them this World Cup. In 2024, it was their bowlers. This time, there can be do doubt. After a shock loss to South Africa in the Super 8s, they were faced with two finals before the actual semifinals. Since then, they have made 256, chased down 198 and made 253. On Sunday, 255 was a new benchmark for a score in the knockout of this tournament.

The pitch was a highway — if Ahmedabad is ever planning to host a Formula 1 race, it can safely be on the track — and the Kiwi bowlers were off their radar the entire night. They fed to Abhishek Sharma’s strength as they allowed him access to the off-side and repeatedly bowled slot balls. They were either a touch too short or a touch too full.

But only a batting team with full conviction in its methodology would have been able to make full use of both factors — conditions of the surface and some bowling largesse (it’s understood that the surfaces have favoured batters as the ICC wanted to limit the scope of dew influencing results).

19 fours and 18 sixes tell its own story. But there’s no point in talking about this match without the exhaustive plans put in place since the day they won the title in the West Indies. The old guard was ushered out as a new brand of hedonistic, attacking cricket was going to be promoted. New ethos were nailed to the mast. The players within the system were either encouraged to develop this or players playing like this were parachuted into the team. It’s also kind of why Shubman Gill was dropped so close to the World Cup. It also kind of partly explains why they flip-flopped over Sanju Samson. He has a high ceiling but his floor was a worry. 

Indian cricket team players celebrate after the win on Sunday

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They needn’t have worried. His batting had partly carried this team to the doorstep of victory. Very much a momentum player, he reserved some of his best for last. After Abhishek Sharma’s rapid start had messed with the New Zealand bowlers, Samson and Ishan Kishan — the other top-order batter whose ceiling in this format is sky high — thrilled the fans who had come from all over the world to watch them.

It didn’t matter what the Kiwis did because whatever they did, the only constant was the ball disappearing. What makes Samson so special when on song is his ability to keep hitting boundaries. In his world, there’s no concept of a single after a boundary. Why settle when you can keep going? He’s one of the best at hitting successive fours in this format and he again showed it.

One boundary, where he steered a near-perfect fifth stump yorker past a diving short third man, was one of the shots of the final. When he wasn’t caressing the ball, he was bludgeoning it over long on or pulling it over mid-wicket. A hat-trick of sixes off Rachin Ravindra forced even members of the press box to clap.

And, in a nutshell, it captured his batting. He doesn’t play the lap or the reverse sweep or the switch hit but he doesn’t need to. Not when you can loft it over extra cover for six just after going back and slapping a short ball over mid-wicket.   

Indian cricket team players celebrate after the win on Sunday

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That other thing about batting in this format. None of these batters care too much about milestones. Samson, on 89, could have stuck around long enough for a ton. He teed off again and holed out in the deep.

In the end, a total of 255 was more than enough and the bowlers knew they had lots of runs to play with, especially in a final when scoreboard pressure is a very real thing.

In the winter of 2023, at the same venue, Indian cricket seemingly couldn’t win a knockout game of this magnitude. Since that day, they haven’t lost a knockout game. Played six, won six. Played three ICC white-ball events. Won three ICC white-ball events. You can include one more if you are counting the Asia Cup.

This is how you begin to create a dynasty. Catch them if you can. At this rate, in this format, nobody may be able to.

-PTI