Color and noise filled India’s streets on Saturday night as the country celebrated its cricket team’s dramatic triumph at the men’s T20 World Cup, defeating South Africa by just seven runs in the final.
Pictures and videos showed people waving flags – some from the roofs of cars stuck in traffic jams – raising their arms in celebration, dancing and brandishing sparklers.
For a cricket-obsessed nation, where the team are national celebrities and the sport is played everywhere, it has been a long 13-year wait without a World Cup trophy.
India is consistently one of the best teams in the world, in all of the sport’s formats – Test, one-day and T20 – but it has experienced a year pockmarked by disappointments, losing to Australia in the finals of both the World Test Championship and, more significantly, at its home ODI World Cup.
And it was the manner of India’s victory, as much as the victory itself, that sparked such ecstatic celebrations. Anchored by talisman Virat Kohli, it had posted a total of 176-7 – the highest ever in a men’s T20 World Cup final – but South Africa was undeterred and, with only five overs to play, it seemed as if the Proteas might achieve the impossible.
It took a spell of brilliant death bowling from Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, as well as Suryakumar Yadav taking what social media users immediately labelled the “greatest catch ever,” to seal India’s historic victory as it became the first ever team to win the tournament without losing a single match.
Almost immediately, India’s captain Rohit Sharma and Kohli announced their retirement from T20 cricket, able to retire from this format with a trophy, finally, in hand.
“This has to be the greatest time,” Rohit said, per the ICC, when asked whether this was the best moment of his hugely successful career. “It’s only because of how desperately I wanted to win this. All the runs that I’ve scored in all these years, it does matter but I’m not big on stats and all of that.
“Winning games for India, winning trophies for India – that is what I look forward to all the time.”
It was the final game too for outgoing head coach Rahul Dravid who paid tribute to the “fight in the team,” as it came back from a seemingly match-losing position.
“I just could not be more proud of this team,” he said, per ESPN Cricinfo. “The way we’ve had to fight in difficult situations and even today, I think it was a great testament to the fight in the team. Losing three wickets in the first six (overs), to be in the kind of position we were in with 30 balls to go. But the boys just kept fighting, they kept believing.”
Although India emerged as the winners of the men’s T20 World Cup, the USA and Afghanistan also starred in this tournament, announcing themselves on the world stage.
The USA, playing in its first ever men’s T20 World Cup, pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the sport when it shocked Pakistan with a dramatic Super Over victory in the group stages. The tournament’s co-host even pushed India close and qualified for the next round of the competition – the Super Eights.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan reached the semifinals for the first ever time, stunning Australia for the first ever time in international cricket and capping an achievement that sparked celebrations on the streets back home.
Ultimately, Afghanistan was thrashed by an impressive South Africa in the semifinals, exiting the T20 World Cup alongside defending champion England whose often listless tournament came to an end against India in their semifinal.
