Robin Uthappa recalls MS Dhoni's gameplan against Pakistan in 2007 T20 World Cup

Robin Uthappa has recalled moments from a famous group-stage encounter against Pakistan during India’s 2007 T20I World Cup-winning campaign in a recent podcast. The match saw India winning via bowl-out.

Uthappa, who was part of that title-winning team, spoke about the match during a conversation with New Zealand spinner Ish Sodhi on a Rajasthan Royals podcast.

File image of Robin Uthappa.

India had posted 141/9 in 20 overs. Pakistan needed 12 to win from 6 balls and Ajit Agarkar and S Sreesanth combined to run Misbah-ul-Haq out on the final ball with the scores tied. This allowed the match to go into a bowl-out.

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Uthappa revealed how the run-out shifted the momentum in India’s favour.

Uthappa said that MS Dhoni stood closer to the stumps in the first-ever bowl out in the T20 World Cup unlike Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal who decided to hang back.

“MS was right behind the stumps. It just made it easier because we felt we just need to bowl to MS, and we will give ourselves best chances of hitting the stumps. That’s what we did,” he said.

Uthappa added that India had practised bowl outs a couple of times leading up to the match and credited Venkatesh Prasad, who was the bowling coach back then, for pitting the batsmen against bowlers on bowl-out sessions.

India won the bowl out 3-0 after all three India cricketers managed to hit the stumps while Pakistan bowlers missed it all three times.