As Joginder Sharma Retires, RP Singh Reveals Why Dhoni Gave Him Last Over Of T20WC 2007 Final

The Indian cricketer Joginder Sharma may have played very few matches for the country but people will always talk about him whenever they will talk about India’s T20 World Cup win in 2007. It was the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup and India sent a relatively young team under the leadership of MS Dhoni. India and Pakistan clashed against each other two times in the tournament – in the league match, India defeated Pakistan in the super over and in the finals, India won in a nail-biting manner.

Joginder Sharma who is currently serving as the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Haryana Police, announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on February 3. Now a video is going viral in which former Indian cricketer RP Singh has explained why MS Dhoni gave the last over of India-Pakistan final to Joginder Sharma despite the fact that one over of Harbhajan Singh was still remaining. RP singh was accompanied by former Indian cricketers Akash Chopra and Pragyan Ojha and before we tell you what RP Singh said, let us tell you something about the match.

The match was played at Johannesburg on 24^th Sept 2007 and India chose to bat after winning the toss. The Indian side managed to put up a total of 157/5 on the score board with the help of Gautam Gambhir’s brilliant knock of 75 runs which he scored in 54 balls and his innings included 8 fours & 2 sixes. Indian bowlers managed to take wickets of Pakistani batters on a regular basis but Misbah-ul-Haq was playing in a superb manner and everyone felt at that time that he would take the match away from the Indians.

In the last over of the innings, Pakistan needed 13 runs to win the game and MS Dhoni chose to go with Joginder Sharma. On the third ball of the over when Pakistan needed 5 runs to win, Misbah-ul-Haq played a scoop shot but he mistimed it and S Sreesanth did the needful by taking a simple catch. India scripted history by winning the T20 World Cup 2007 but since then, India hasn’t been able to repeat the history.

In the video, Akash Chopra asked RP Singh who was a part of the Indian squad at that time to tell the story behind giving the ball to Joginder Sharma. RP Singh said that MS Dhoni always believed that 17, 18 and 19 overs are more important than the 20^th over. RP Singh said that usually Harbhajan Singh used to bowl the 17^th over and took wickets as well but Misbah was completely in a different mood because of which miscalculation happened.

In the 17^th over bowled by Harbhajan Singh, Misbah had smashed three sixes which might also have stopped Dhoni from handing over ball to Bhajji in the last over.

RP Singh further said that if a left-hander had been batting, then Bhajji would have been preferred but as Misbah was right handed, the decision to give last over to Joginder Sharma was taken because he had high probability of stopping Misbah.

Here is the video:

Click to watch this video directly on Twitter

We offer our best wishes to Joginder Sharma for his second innings.