Former Pakistan skipper, Misbah-ul-Haq has over the years made some crucial contributions for Pakistan in the middle-order during his international career. While he managed to get the job done for the team on multiple occasions, there were instances where he failed as well and one of those failures came against arch-rivals India in the final of the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup in 2007 at Johannesburg’s Wanderers Stadium.
At one point it seemed as if Misbah-ul-Haq will take Pakistan over the line for the title win single-handedly before that infamous scoop shot led to his as well as Pakistan’s downfall. Now, the former skipper has explained why he played that shot in the first place.
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During a recent conversation with his former teammates, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Yousuf as the quotes in CricketNext, Misbah-ul-Haq said, “In 2007, I always say that throughout every game, I scored so many fours playing that shot. Even with the fine leg in place, I was taking singles while playing that shot against Australia. Against spinners, I used to beat fine leg with that shot. So, you can say I got overconfident. I mistimed the shot on which I had the most confidence.”
Chasing 153, Pakistan was reeling at 77/6 in the 12th over before Misbah-ul-Haq kept them in the hunt with some great shots. He targeted the spin attack especially Harbhajan Singh as the team’s scoring rate went up in the middle and slog overs. He also got some much-needed support from tail-ender Sohail Tanvir as the duo took Pakistan pretty close to chasing down the target.
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Such was their impact that the asking rate came down drastically and just 13 runs were needed off the final over. In a rather surprising move, skipper MS Dhoni decided to gave the ball to medium-pacer, Joginder Sharma who bowled a wide delivery under pressure and while he did manage to get away with a dot ball on the next one, Misbah clobbered him for a huge six on the second ball as Pakistan were just one hit away from glory.
In the following delivery, Joginder Sharma bowled a slower one outside off-stump as Misbah-ul-Haq walked across the line and attempted a scoop shot only to find Sreesanth at fine leg as India were crowned world champions by five runs.
