Snatching immortality from jaws of remorse: India trade their souls for legacy to finally have a tryst with destiny
It is common for athletes and teams to shed blood, sweat, and tears to attain glory. But, how often have souls been part of that transaction?
The moment in question came when Heinrich Klaasen smashed Axar Patel for 24 runs in the 15th over of the run chase in the all-important 2024 T20 World Cup Final between India and South Africa at the Kensington Oval in Barbados.
The mammoth over meant that the Proteas only needed 30 runs off 30 deliveries (27 off 28 to make the equation a bit worse for India). Run-a-ball in this age is hardly a threat. The conditions were not as threatening, there was a set Heinrich Klaasen present, and so was the veteran finisher David Miller at the other end.
For a minute there, Team India were statuesque, lifeless, and were on the verge of being completely soulless. Yes, there was the pressure of the finals. Yes, Bumrah had two overs remaining. Yes, one should never even consider giving up. But, one would not be human if the visions of the near-misses over the last decade did not flash before their eyes.
The Debacle in Dhaka, Smith's show in Sydney, West Indies' Wankhede Show, Fakhar Zaman's masterclass, that MS Dhoni run out, and the Hales-Buttler storm, and the harrowing night in Ahmedabad. All of these are engraved in a part of India's soul, and they were ready to trade it off for something eternal. And when 140 crore people unanimously trade their souls in, the almighty has to respond with something magical, and he did.
God could not come down and bowl, so he sent Jasprit Bumrah
Match-winner is a quite common adjective associated with athletes in team sports. Now, a broader term in the form of 'tournament-winner' is difficult to place on a player because of how many factors are involved, as the performance of others comes into play as well.
However, there are a few athletes who make the cut, like Michael Jordan and Cristiano Ronaldo, who drove their teams to NBA titles and Champions League glory respectively on a consistent basis to be known as bonafide trophy collectors.
Although there is not enough silverware to back Bumrah's case in this regard, his sheer generational skill and ability supersedes it to a great extent. There might be bowlers who are more successful than him in terms of number of wickets, there are certainly bowlers who are more elegant to watch than him, but is there a bowler more reliable than him?
In their pursuit of defending 177 to end the trophy drought, it was Bumrah who had delivered the early breakthrough for India. An unplayable delivery to Reeza Hendricks, that ended right on top of off stump, summed up his brilliant first spell that saw 12 runs being conceded off two overs. At this point, India were in control of the contest.
However, by the time he had got the ball again, 11 overs later, everything had fallen apart. The usual 17th and the 19th over plan was thrown out of the window as Rohit Sharma needed things to happen in the blink of an eye. Bumrah came in an over early to concede only four runs, and Heinrich Klaasen was dismissed off the first ball of the next over by Pandya, to reignite a bit of hope.
With Miller still out in the middle, Bumrah was forced to close out his spell in the 18th over itself. However, he set things up as well as he could by conceding only a couple of runs and casting Jansen with a jaffa. The cushion of 20 runs off the final two overs proved to be lavish as Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya kept their nerve and built on Bumrah's work to defend the score.
As much as the skills are diverse in this generational Indian squad, so are the emotions. Right after the final delivery, Rohit and Hardik were reduced to tears, the others were overjoyed and ecstatic, but the coldest man on the field, and perhaps the entire island was Jasprit Bumrah.
"I usually am the one who tries to keep my emotions in check and gets the job done. I don't have a lot of words. I usually don't cry a lot after the game but this feels really special," Bumrah said in the post-match presentation.
It's often his booming yorkers and cutters, the extraordinary deliveries and variations, that steal the spotlight, but it is India's boon that Bumrah's ordinary deliveries (ordinary only by his standards) are more than enough to keep the opposition at bay.
From Adelaide to Barbados, the Domino Effect
As Rohit and Dravid mentioned amid the post-match festivities, winning the T20 World Cup was hardly a task of getting out of bed, going out to play, and taking the trophy home. It was a two-year process, a period of atonement, a phase to ingrain a new approach completely.
The timeline may vary from person to person depending on their perspective, but it can be agreed by the majority that the seeds for the heist in Barbados were planted close to 18 months ago in Adelaide.
"It is not what we did today, it is what we have been doing for the last 3-4 years. That's the result that has come for us today," Rohit Sharma said.
"This is a journey of two years. think about the construction of the team, the players we wanted and the balance we wanted. The discussions started when we started in September 2022. It culminated in the World Cup but honestly the disappointment of Australia (in the 2022 World Cup where they reached semifinals) and World Cup final loss (in India last year) also contributed. This feels like a two-year journey, not one month. It all came together here on a beautiful afternoon here in Barbados," Dravid said.
The drubbing in Adelaide at the hands of England in the semi-finals of the 2022 T20 World Cup was not just a showcase of how Buttler and co. were far superior that night, but it was a stark reminder of how far behind Team India were in the shortest format.
At that point in time, there was acceptance of that fact, but no execution. Despite all talks of implementing aggressive cricket right from the word go, Rohit Sharma scored 27 runs off 28 deliveries and Virat Kohli scored 50 runs off 30 deliveries in that contest.
On that day, India had scored five boundaries in the entire powerplay, in the 2024 T20 World Cup final, they matched that tally in just 1.2 overs, and it was the same set of aforementioned batters.
India's change in fortune begins with a straight-forward line that Rohit Sharma said to Dinesh Karthik after India's exit from the 2022 T20 World Cup - "This is not the way to play". The loss hurt in more ways than one, but more importantly, it woke India up.
There has been a remarkable turnaround concerning how India have approached the shortest format since. Although Rohit Sharma was not part of the setup for a while, nobody can question his involvement, particularly after he led the way with the bat in crunch fixtures in the 2024 T20 World Cup.
The first domino fell in Adelaide and the last domino fell on the other side of the world in Barbados to complete the process.
South Africa ended up choking, not by fear, but by the fumes of India's fire.
It was the raging desire to not go through another heartbreak that fuelled India in the end, the wounds of November 19 were still fresh. To lose hear meant that they would have to go through all of that again, and fall even deeper, making it all that harder to climb out of it.
That burning longing to be on the right side of things for just once, proved to be a touch more than South Africa's aspirations of lifting an ICC title for the first time.
Although this makes little sense, perhaps South Africa were a choke overdue, especially because it has been somehow built into them at this point. They avoided one against Bangladesh, and escaped one past Nepal, but it caught up with them against India.
South Africa's maiden final appearance in an ICC event might well be overshadowed by their own bottle job, Rohit and Kohli's T20I farewell, the Indian seamers' masterclass at the death, Suryakumar Yadav's catch. That's the cruelty of sport, but India and South Africa were well familiar with it before going into the finals.
The Men in Blue also ended up winning because they did the right things when the proceedings were not going in their favor. Whether it be Axar Patel's promotion and his onslaught after the drinks break, or Kohli's grit to anchor the innings and tie down one end, or the clever field change to trap Quinton de Kock.'
On a closing note, the Barbados ground staff may have removed the tricolor planted on the outfield by now, but it will be downright impossible to remove the visual, even after a lobotomy, for it was not just a mere gesture for the cameras. It was a stamp of authority, the unmatched patriotic passion, and a killer stab into the decade-long anguish. The frustration of being the best in the world for an entire decade, and not have anything to show for it is a travesty, to say the least.
No health tests can confirm it, and no doctor can attest to it, but all of India lost a part of their soul yesterday, and the beauty of it is that not a single one will complain. If you don't believe that souls were traded, rewind back to Rohit Sharma slapping his hands on the turf, revisit Hardik Pandya's tears, recall Virat Kohli's comments, and open your eyes to your heart, and you will know.