'I got overconfident': Misbah-ul-Haq speaks on playing scoop shot against India in 2007 World T20 final

The inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007 had a nail-biting final between arch-rivals India and Pakistan. India lifted the first T20 World Cup trophy after defeating Pakistan by five runs. The key moment of the game was when Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq mistimed a scoop shot and was dismissed by Joginder Sharma in the final over.

Over 14 years after that key moment, the former Pakistan skipper admitted that he might have been overconfident in attempting to play the scoop shot. In a conversation with former teammates Mohammad Yousuf and Shoaib Akhtar, the former batter recounted his side’s loss to India in the 2007 T20 World Cup.

“In 2007, I always say that throughout every game, I scored so many fours playing that shot. Even with the fine leg in place, I was taking singles while playing that shot against Australia. Against spinners, I used to beat fine leg with that shot,” Misbah said.

“So, you can say I got overconfident. I mistimed the shot on which I had the most confidence.”

Misbah also talked about his team’s loss to India at Mohali in the 2011 ODI World Cup semi-finals. He stated that Pakistan had planned to score big in the final five overs through the batting powerplay, but admitted that he did not get enough time at the striker’s end to make a difference.

“In 2011, on that Mohali pitch, India had scored 44 (39/0) in 4 overs. When the ball got older, it started to reverse, it started gripping and runs were harder to get. Sachin scored 80-something (85) and he was man of the match. India were struggling after that start,” he said.

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“Even we had put around 80 runs in the first 15 overs, losing only one wicket. In the next few overs, we hardly scored runs and lost three wickets. There was Yuvraj at one end, Harbhajan at the other, and then fast bowlers also came in. Singles were the most difficult. Either you hit it out or try and grind in.

“Throughout the World Cup, we were scoring heavily in the batting powerplay towards the end. The thought was that even if we needed 100 runs in the final 10 overs, we had a batting powerplay of five overs. If we had wickets in hand, we could’ve easily chased it down. I was standing alone in the final five overs of powerplay and I got to play only 2 overs. We lost the game by 20-22 runs and I didn’t play three overs of powerplay at all. There was no batsman at the other end.”

India had scored 260 runs in the game, with Tendulkar being the top scorer with 85 runs. In reply, Pakistan were bowled out for 231 with Misbah scoring 56 off 76  balls.

After beating Pakistan, India defeated Sri Lanka by six wickets in the final to win the 2011 ODI World Cup.

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