It has been 15 years since that fateful day in Durban where India beat arch-rivals Pakistan. The match ended in a tie after Pakistan batter Misbah-ul-Haq was run out of the last ball of the contest. However, the tournament regulations did not allow for the points to be shared, and thus the match had to be decided by a bowl-out. The bowl-out, similar to a penalty shootout in football, saw both teams attempt to hit the stumps with no batter in front of it. Each strike would give them a point.
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For India, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, and Robin Uthappa were right on the money and struck the stumps. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul, and Shahid Afridi, all missed the mark. India won the bowl-out owing to their 3-0 lead.
Meanwhile, the skipper who oversaw that win and who would go onto become the captain cool, revealed how they prepared for this ‘unique situation.’ He said they began every net session with a bowl out and those who outshone others were given the opportunity on that fateful night.
“There was something that was very particular about that T20 World Cup and bowl out was one of the things. And before that we had never practiced bowl out. So whenever we went for practice we started it off with a bowl out,” he was heard saying in a video which is doing the rounds on social media.
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“Whether it is before the warm-up or after the warm-up, because we knew we may need a situation where we may have to do a bowl out if it’s a tie. We made it very clear, it may be for fun but whoever hits the wickets most number of times, they will be the one who will be used when the situation arises.”
He further stated that the bowl out didn’t mean that it was a bowler’s thing as people who had showed a good fit were preferred.
“It has nothing to do with ‘I am a bowler, this is my job, I will do.’ I was like ‘no.’ Again it’s a performance thing, we will like to keep doing it every day and whoever has the best hit ratio will be the one who will be used.”
“We started it that way and we never realised actually that in the first few games itself against that Pakistan game, there will be a bowl out session.”
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