Bhubaneswar: September 24 will always be a very special day in the annals of Indian cricket. It is on this day a young Indian team led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni created history. It was on this day that the likes of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, RP Singh, Gautam Gambhir became household names in India. It is because on this day India won the T20 World Cup for the first and only time. Victory was sweeter because it came against arch rivals Pakistan.
In the final, India scored 157 for five in their 20 overs and then restricted Pakistan to 152 all out in 19.3 overs. Gambhir was the top scorer for India with 75 and RP Singh had figures of three wickets for 26 runs.
No one can forget the excitement the Indians felt across the world as Dhoni lifted the trophy. Since then the MS Dhoni-led Indian side achieved many other milestones. Among them were winning the 50 overs World Cup (2011) and the Champions Trophy in 2013.
The International Cricket Council posted a tweet on the micro-blogging site to celebrate India’s 13th anniversary of the astounding win.
See link: https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1308989153955188742
There were others who also took to Twitter to celebrate the occasion. Irfan Pathan who got the crucial wicket of Shahid Afridi in the final said, “I will remember this day till my last breath.”
See link: https://twitter.com/IrfanPathan/status/1309020221148196865
Pace bowler RP Singh who also played the final and bowled a crucial 19th over said that he always celebrates this particular day as his birthday. He said every September 24 is a very ‘special’ day for him.
See link: https://twitter.com/rpsingh/status/1309036096987320331
There were many others who took to the micro-blogging site to celebrate the feat achieved by the Indian cricket team. Among them were Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag.
See links:
https://twitter.com/harbhajan_singh/status/1308989474089709577
https://twitter.com/virendersehwag/status/1308999877301592064
However, the man who made the victory possible with his astute captaincy has not expressed any opinion on this particular day. However, that is quite expected of ‘Captain Cool’ as he rarely expresses his emotions.
But then, this is a day which the cricket-crazy Indian fans will always remember. The victory lighted up the entire nation and the win was very significant as it came after the disastrous show in the 50 overs World Cup. India were knocked out of the group stages, losing their games against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.