T20 World Cup / Ind vs Pak flashback: When 3 balls told, no one like Dhoni

T20 World Cup | Tomorrow is the T20 World Cup 2022 match between India and Pakistan. Although there is a forecast of heavy rain in Melbourne, despite this, the enthusiasm of cricket fans is boiling. By the way, whenever there is a discussion of T20 matches between India and Pakistan, the scene of the year 2007 revolves in front of the eyes. The Kingsmead ground in Durban, South Africa, the first T20 World Cup and India and Pakistan face to face for the first time in T20 format. Also remember, a name that later made this team the champion, but in this very first match, he surprised everyone with his magical strategy. It was Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who took such a special step in this match against Pakistan, which proved his mettle. On the eve of India Pakistan match in T20 World Cup this year, let's remember that special moment of the year 2007...

Such was the condition of the match

The first T20 World Cup was played in the year 2007. Teams of India and Pakistan were face to face in the tenth match of the tournament. Pakistan won the toss and decided to bowl first. Pakistani fast bowler Mohammad Asif devastated the Indian top order. Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh had returned to the pavilion on the sum of 19 runs. Robin Uthappa scored 50 in 39 balls and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni scored 33 runs in 31 balls for India in that match. Apart from this, Irfan Pathan had scored 20 valuable runs in 15 balls. Thanks to this, India scored 141 runs for 9 wickets in 20 overs. Chasing this score, Pakistan came close to the target thanks to the 53 runs of Misbah-ul-Haq. But in the end, the match was tied after Misbah was run out.

And then came the ballout

After the match was tied, then there was a rule to decide the match through ballout. For this both the teams had to choose their five bowlers each. Shoaib Malik, the then captain of the Pakistani team, picked his prowess bowlers Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir, Yasir Arafat, Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Asif. At the same time, the Indian captain Dhoni selected for the ball out was quite surprising. There were legendary bowlers like Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan in this list, but there were also shocking names like Virender Sehwag and Robin Uthappa. However, later Dhoni's move became a masterstroke. Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Robin Uthappa made three consecutive hits for India. At the same time, Shahid Afridi, Yasir Arafat and Umar Gul missed the stumps all three times from Pakistan's side. Along with this, Team India also captured the match by winning the ball out 3-0.

That's why it is called Mahi Magic

The way Dhoni chose his bowlers to bowl out in this match, he surprised everyone. But actually Dhoni had a well thought out strategy behind it. At that time the T20 format was new and the rules related to it were also new. In this the rule of ball out was also included. The players later revealed that the ball outs were practiced regularly after every practice session. During this, Dhoni used to ask not only the bowlers but also the batsmen to target the stumps. This was the reason that when it came to the ball out, the Indian team was not only mentally prepared for it, but the targets of their players were also accurate.