From Chris Gayle’s stunning century to Yuvraj Singh‘s 6 sixes in an over, the first edition of the T20 World Cup in 2007 witnessed so many memorable moments. However, one incident that grabbed the maximum eyeballs was the infamous scoop shot played by the then Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq in the dramatic final against India.
Notably, Pakistan needed just six runs from four deliveries with one wicket in hand before Misbah went for that scoop shot which was aimed at the fine-leg region. However, the shot was mistimed as S.Sreesanth grabbed the catch and a young Indian side, led by MS Dhoni, defeated arch-rivals Pakistan by five runs to lift the coveted trophy.
Now over 14 years later, Misbah recalled the popular episode admitting that he might have been ‘overconfident’ in attempting the scoop shot. During a conversation with former Pakistan teammates Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah detailed his side’s losses to India in the T20 World Cup final (2007) and the ODI World Cup semi-final (2011).
“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. So, you can say I got overconfident. I mistimed the shot on which I had the most confidence,” said Misabah on Akhtar’s YouTube channel.
Misbah further shared his thoughts about the semi-final loss against India in Mohali in the 2011 World Cup, stating they planned a late burst in the run-chase and regular wicket fall couldn’t help Pakistan chase down the target, and he fought alone in the battle.
“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,” the former Pakistan skipper added.
“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. We could’ve easily chased it down if we had wickets in hand. I was standing alone in the powerplay’s final five overs, and I got to play only two 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,” Misbah added further.
