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On June 29, 2024, India ended their ICC trophy drought with T20 World Cup 2024 title win in Barbados. The game seemed to have slipped out of India's grasp as Heinrich Klaasen launched an onslaught. But after a break induced by Rishabh Pant faking injury, India were back on track again and ended up winning the final by seven runs.
"See, Hardik has come to bowl there. So, we were discussing with Hardik what to do. I didn't know what had happened before. I genuinely thought that something had happened to him. The accident he had, I thought he was just trying to. But actually, it was just to stop the game a little bit. The momentum was with them. So, it was very important to break that. So, I think we went back to that. Eventually, Hardik dismissed Klaasen," Pant told Star Sports in an interview.
Earlier, Rohit had lauded Pant for using his intelligence to break South Africa's momentum on 'The Great Indian Kapil Show'.
"When South Africa needed 30 runs off 30 balls, just before that, there was a small break. Pant used his intelligence to pause the game - he had a knee injury, so he had his knee taped, which helped slow down the game - because the game was fast-paced, and at that moment, all a batter wants is the ball to be bowled quickly. But we had to break the rhythm. As I was setting the field and talking to bowlers, suddenly I saw Pant fallen on the ground. The physiotherapist had arrived and was taping his knee. Klassen was waiting for the match to start again. I am not saying it's the only reason, but it could be one of them - Pant Sahab used his smarts and things worked out in our favour," he had said.
What happened after Pant's fake injury?
After Pant disrupted the flow of the game, Jasprit Bumrah conceded just four runs. Then, Hardik Pandya came on to bowl and dismissed Klaasen to stage India's comeback. Bumrah, in his last over, got the wicket of Marco Jansen. Arshdeep Singh was impressive as well, conceding just four runs off penultimate over. In the final over, Pandya started with a full toss to David Miller. The southpaw went for a big shot but was caught by Suryakumar Yadav at long-off. Pandya conceded one more boundary and then dismissed Kagiso Rabada as India won the match by seven runs to win the T20 World Cup after 17 years.
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