India captain Rohit Sharma opened up on his thought process during the last five overs of the T20 World Cup 2024 final against South Africa. Notably, India were in a spot of bother as South Africa required just 30 runs to win off the last 30 balls having six wickets in hand. Heinrich Klaasen looked on song as he smacked Indian spinners to all corners of the ground and raced to a 23-ball fifty.
Recalling his thought process during the crucial last five overs of the all-important final, Rohit revealed that he was completely blank. The India captain further said that it was important for him to stay in the moment and for the entire team to stay calm to execute their plans.
“Yes, I was completely blank. I don’t look too far ahead. It’s very important for me to stay in the moment and focus on the job at hand. It was very important for all of us to stay calm and try to execute our plans,” Rohit said at an event in Dallas.
Further speaking ahead, Rohit revealed that staying calm under pressure helped the team massively and they were eventually able to come out on top.
“When we were under immense pressure when South Africa needed 30 runs off 30 balls, the five overs that we bowled showed how calm we were. We just focussed on our job, not thinking much about anything else. We didn’t panic that was very good from our side,” he added.
Notably, India were staring down the barrel having just 29 runs to defend in the last five overs. However, India’s golden arm Jasprit Bumrah once again came to team’s rescue and was given good support by the other two seamers Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh. Bumrah gave just six runs in the last over and got the important scalp of Marco Jansen.
Arshdeep Singh kept the pressure on in the penultimate over leaking just four runs. Hardik Pandya got the all-important scalp of Klaasen in the 17th over. The seam all-rounder further bowled the crucial last over and dismissed the well-set David Miller on the first ball itself courtesy of a breathtaking catch by Suryakumar Yadav.
Following his dismissal, India managed to close out the game and won the match by seven runs to win the T20 World Cup 2024 and end their 11-year-long ICC Trophy drought.
