ICC World Twenty20 2007: India Win Inaugural T20 World Cup — Gambhir 75, Misbah Scoop Caught by Sreesanth Off Joginder Sharma's Last Over

India won the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 2007 on 24 September 2007 at the Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa, beating Pakistan by 5 runs. India scored 157/5 in 20 overs; Pakistan were bowled out for 152 in 19.3 overs, needing 6 runs off the final ball from Joginder Sharma — Misbah-ul-Haq's ramp/scoop attempted to clear fine leg, mistimed, and caught by Sreesanth to end the match. Gautam Gambhir scored 75 off 54 balls to anchor India's innings. Irfan Pathan took 3/16 as Player of the Match in the final. Shahid Afridi (Pakistan) won Player of the Tournament with 12 wickets at a strike rate of 197.82 with the bat. MS Dhoni captained India; Shoaib Malik captained Pakistan. Umar Gul (Pakistan) was the tournament's leading wicket-taker with 13 wickets across 7 matches.

Gambhir 75 Off 54: The Innings That Built India's 157/5

Gautam Gambhir's 75 off 54 balls — scored at the top of India's batting order in the Wanderers final — gave India's 157/5 total its foundation: the most runs by any Indian batter in the match, built against Pakistan's pace attack in the Johannesburg conditions. Gambhir, the left-handed Delhi opener whose attacking technique at the top of the order had made him one of India's most consistent powerplay scorers in the mid-2000s, scoring 75 in the inaugural T20 World Cup final at 26 years old gave him the tournament's most important individual batting contribution in the decisive match — the innings that made 157/5 possible. Rohit Sharma contributed 30 off 16 balls in the same innings, giving India's batting lineup a second scoring source alongside Gambhir. Irfan Pathan, whose 3/16 in the Pakistan chase — dismissing Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, and Yasir Arafat — earned him the Player of the Match award, gave India's bowling the match-winning spell to complement Gambhir's batting.

Misbah Scoop Off Joginder Sharma: The Last Ball That Decided the Inaugural T20 World Cup

Pakistan needing 6 runs off the final ball of Joginder Sharma's 20th over — the match's last delivery with the tournament title at stake — and Misbah-ul-Haq attempting a ramp shot over fine leg, mistiming it, Sreesanth sprinting from fine leg to take the catch, India winning by 5 runs: the Wanderers 2007 T20 WC final's decisive moment gave the inaugural tournament its most replayed conclusion in cricket history. Misbah had been batting aggressively throughout the chase, bringing Pakistan close from what had seemed an impossible position, hitting multiple boundaries to reduce the deficit from 54 off 30 to 6 off the last ball — the momentum entirely with Pakistan before the ramp mistimed. Joginder Sharma — the right-arm medium-pace bowler from Haryana who was a relatively junior squad member before the T20 WC — being given the final over by MS Dhoni rather than a senior bowler (Harbhajan, Pathan) became one of Indian cricket's most celebrated captaincy decisions: a 23-year-old debutant-level bowler trusted with the tournament's final delivery, successfully defending 6 runs off the last ball when Misbah's ramp cleared to Sreesanth rather than over the boundary.

ICC World Twenty20 2007 in Context

The ICC World Twenty20 2007 — held in South Africa in September 2007 — was the inaugural men's T20 World Cup, establishing T20 international cricket's global tournament format just three years after international T20 cricket began. India's 5-run win over Pakistan — Gambhir 75, Pathan 3/16 PoM, Misbah scoop caught Sreesanth off Joginder Sharma, Afridi PoT (12 wkts), Dhoni captain — gave the inaugural title to the team that would go on to win the 2024 T20 WC in Barbados and the 2011 ODI World Cup, bookending MS Dhoni's captaincy era with two ICC white-ball titles. The Wanderers 2007 victory launched India's T20 World Cup winning history and — commercially — accelerated the BCCI's decision to establish the Indian Premier League in 2008, directly attributing the IPL's creation to the T20 format's popularity demonstrated in Johannesburg.