India Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared a laugh with India captain Rohit Sharma in knowing the reason behind their trophy celebration when they got the better of South Africa during the final of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, at the Kensington Oval, in Bridgetown, Barbados, to end their 11-year-old wait for an ICC trophy.
India were unbeaten throughout the tournament and became the first team in the history of the competition to lift the trophy unbeaten. In the group stage of the tournament, the blue brigade quite comprehensively got the better of Ireland at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York.
The way they held their nerve during the 120-run defense against Pakistan was quite impressive. With 48 runs being required at run-a-ball, with eight wickets in hand, the pressure was on the India team, and the way they kept on taking wickets to keep the pressure on the arch-rivals, showed their all-around stability in the team.
The end of an era for India in the shortest format of the game
Their game against the co-host United States of America was a bit close, where chasing 110 runs, they lost a few early wickets before Suryakumar Yadav and Shivam Dube saw them off in the chase. The only game for India at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground in Florida was washed out due to persistent rain.
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The template for them in this tournament was quite new and aggressive as they displayed the same during their game against Afghanistan and Bangladesh, where the India batters, especially the captain weren’t scared of going for the big shots from the very first ball of the innings.
The main goal for the team was the last super-eight encounter against Australia at the Darren Sammy National Stadium in St Lucia, where the batters kept on nailing the big shots, led by Rohit’s 41-ball 92-run knock, which pushed them over the 200-mark at the end. The same story continued during their semifinal clash against England, at the Providence Stadium in Guyana.
On a slow and low surface of the Caribbean, the batters tend to get the better of the bowling, as both Rohit and Sky reached their fifties to carry India to a safe score. When the situation was a bit different during the final, having lost three wickets inside the powerplay, Virat Kohli took charge and pushed India to a position where the bowlers had something to fight.
The whole Indian team interacted with PM Narendra Modi, where he shared a laugh with the team about asking Rohit if it was Yuzvendra Chahal’s idea to celebrate oddly.
However, the Nagpur-born revealed that it was both Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav who asked him to do something extraordinary while walking up to collect the trophy. Even though Kuldeep later said that Rohit didn’t follow his instructions properly for the celebration.
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The whole team, at the end of the interaction, flew to Mumbai and took part in the victory parade from Marine Drive to the Wankhede Stadium, where they were welcomed with a round of applause and cheers from the crowd.
At the end of the final, it was Virat Kohli’s first to retirement in the shortest format of the game, before Rohit announced the same in the post-match press conference, while Ravindra Jadeja too took his India’s retirement from this format, through a post on the social media.
This brings the end of this era, as the two-time champions look to have more young and exciting players in T20Is shortly.
