ICC World Twenty20 2007: First T20 World Cup, India Beat Pakistan in Final, MS Dhoni, Misbah's Scoop, South Africa

The inaugural ICC World Twenty20 was played in South Africa in September 2007, bringing the T20 format to the international stage for the first time with a global tournament involving twelve of the world's Test-playing and associate nations. Twenty20 cricket had been growing rapidly in domestic competitions since its introduction — first in English county cricket in 2003, and then expanding to other domestic competitions including the Twenty20 matches that cricket boards were introducing to their schedules — and the ICC World Twenty20 represented the format's elevation to the status of an international event of the same order as the 50-over World Cup and the Test series. India came into the tournament having been knocked out of the 50-over World Cup in the early stages of the tournament held in the Caribbean just months before, a result that had caused considerable criticism in Indian cricket media and among Indian supporters. The selectors responded by resting several senior players, including the recently retired Sourav Ganguly, and appointing the 26-year-old Mahendra Singh Dhoni — who had been making a considerable impact on international cricket as a powerful lower-middle-order batsman and wicketkeeper — as India's captain for the T20 World Cup.

The India–Pakistan Final at Johannesburg

India and Pakistan both progressed through the tournament to meet in the final at The Wanderers stadium in Johannesburg on 24 September 2007 — the two most populous cricket-supporting nations in the world facing each other in the final of the inaugural T20 World Cup. India, batting first, scored a competitive total that set Pakistan a challenging target. Pakistan's chase was constructed methodically and brought them to a position where they needed twelve runs from the final over — a target that was achievable but far from certain. The over was bowled by Joginder Sharma, a medium-pace bowler who had not been one of India's primary bowling options through the tournament. Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan's experienced middle-order batsman, hit a six from the first ball of the over to bring the requirement down to six from five balls — a target very much in Pakistan's favour. But then, from the second ball, Misbah attempted an audacious scoop shot over short fine leg — a shot that he had played earlier in the innings — and the ball went directly to S. Sreesanth positioned at short fine leg. Sreesanth took the catch to dismiss Misbah for 43, and India were declared the ICC World Twenty20 champions. The match was one of the most dramatic finishes in the short history of international T20 cricket and produced one of the most debated dismissals: whether Misbah's attempted scoop was brave improvisation or an unnecessary risk when a more orthodox shot could have kept the winning blow within his reach.

The Yuvraj Six Sixes and the Tournament's Legacy

While the final provided the tournament's most dramatic moment, the individual highlight of the ICC World Twenty20 2007 was Yuvraj Singh's six consecutive sixes off Stuart Broad in a single over during India's group-stage match against England at Kingsmead, Durban. Yuvraj hit each delivery of the over — bowled by the England seamer who was in only his first year of international cricket — for six, becoming the first batsman to score six sixes in a single over of international cricket. The innings contributed to a 36-off-6-balls over that the T20 format had created space for in a way that no other format of the game had done previously, and it was the moment that crystallised, for the global audience watching the World Twenty20, the particular spectacle that the T20 format could provide. The tournament as a whole established that T20 international cricket — with its rapid scoring, the possibility of extraordinary individual moments compressed into brief periods of play, and the accessibility of the format for new audiences — had a specific and legitimate place in the international game. The ICC World Twenty20's success directly foreshadowed the creation of the Indian Premier League in 2008, which would transform the financial landscape of cricket globally and make T20 the most commercially significant format in the game's history.