The inaugural Twenty-20 World Cup was staged in South Africa from September 11 th 24 2007. Twelve teams took part in the thirteen-day tournament, comprising the 10 Test playing nations as well as the finalists of the 2007 World Cricket League Division One tournament – Kenya and Scotland.
The 12 participant teams were divided into four groups of three teams each. The groups were determined based on the rankings of the teams in Twenty-20 as of March 1, 2007. The top two teams from each group went through to the second stage of the tournament, Super Eights.
The eight teams qualified for the Super Eights were divided into two groups of four teams each. The two top teams from each Super Eight group qualified for the semi-finals. In semi finals, Pakistan defeated New Zealand by six wickets while India beat Australia by 15 runs. India defeated Pakistan by five runs in the final to win the inaugural Twenty-20 World Cup at Johannesburg on September 24,2007.
India won the toss and chose to bat on what was considered to be a traditionally batsman-friendly pitch. Umar Gul took the wickets of both Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, leaving India with 157-5 in 20 overs; only Gautam Gambhir (75 from 54 balls) produced a notable innings.
A 21-run over from Sreesanth swung the game towards Pakistan. However, Irfan Pathan and Joginder Sharma slowed the scoring dramatically. With Pakistan needing 54 from 24 balls, Misbah-ul-Haq hit three sixes off Harbhajan Singh in one over. Sreesanth was also dispatched for two sixes but took the wicket of Sohail Tanvir, as Pakistan went into the last over needing 13 runs to win, with only 1 wicket remaining. Joginder Sharma bowled a wide first ball, followed by a dot ball. Misbah-ul-Haq followed by taking six off a full-toss; Pakistan needed just 6 runs to win from the last four balls. Misbah-ul-Haq attempted to hit the next ball with a paddle-scoop over fine leg, but he only managed to sky the ball, and it was caught at short fine-leg by Sreesanth, leaving Pakistan all out for 152 runs in 10.3 overs . Irfan Pathan was awarded the Man of the Match for his spell of three wickets for 16 runs, including that of Man of the Series, Shahid Afridi.
As many as 7881 runs were scored for the loss of 348 wickets at an average of 22.64 off 986.1 overs in 26 matches. The match between India and Scotland was abandoned with out a ball being bowled.
India and Pakistan are the only two teams who crossed 1000-run mark. Pakistan scored 1106 runs for the loss of 46 wickets off 136.3 overs in seven matches while India made 1037 runs for the loss of 37 wickets in six matches.
