MATCH STORIES
Follow UsVirat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya might be receiving all the plaudits for India’s triumph in the 2024 T20 World Cup, but the finale in Barbados saw Arshdeep Singh, the unsung hero of India’s campaign, once again step up and deliver.
Arshdeep finished the final at Kensington Oval with figures of 2/20. In doing so, he equalled Fazalhaq Farooqi’s record for taking the most wickets in a single T20WC campaign (17).
Arshdeep also now holds the record for the most wickets taken by an Indian in an edition of the T20WC. The previous record belonged to RP Singh, who bagged 12 wickets in India’s victorious campaign in 2007. Bumrah (15) has also now gone past the record set by RP Singh 17 years ago.
It’s been some campaign from Arshdeep. The 25-year-old was not a sure-shot starter prior to the T20WC, with his spot being in jeopardy due to an ordinary IPL 2024, where he registered an economy of 10.03. But he started the T20WC as part of a three-pronged pace attack and then later retained his spot over Mohammed Siraj for the West Indies leg of the tournament (Super 8s and beyond), following an ultra-impressive showing in the United States leg.
The USA leg saw Arshdeep take seven wickets at an average of 10.7 and economy of 6.3. He registered figures of 4/9 against the USA, the best for an Indian in a T20WC game.
He bagged another 10 wickets in the Super 8s stage and produced crucial strikes throughout the latter half of the competition. The left-arm seamer set the tone for the side in the Australia clash with the wicket of David Warner in the first over of the second innings and did admirable clean-up jobs against both Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Arshdeep, however, pretty much saved his best for the last. The left-armer, in his second over, sent South Africa’s skipper Aiden Markram packing with a cross-seam delivery that took the outside edge of the right-hander. He had figures of 2-0-8-1 in the powerplay to peg the Proteas back in a tight chase.
He then came back and removed the well-set, dangerous Quinton de Kock to put a massive spanner in South Africa’s works in the final. Then, finally, asked to bowl the 19th over, with South Africa needing 20 off 12 balls, he bowled a 4-run penultimate over to set the stage for Hardik Pandya to bowl the side to victory.
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