Harbhajan Singh describes how S Sreesanth would have got the slap months earlier

It was one of the biggest moments for Indian cricket in the 21st century. A young team, led by a young captain in Mahendra Singh Dhoni, went on to win the inaugural World T20 in South Africa and it came six months after India’s horrible outing in the 50-over World Cup in the West Indies. The fact that not many senior players were playing the T20 World Cup saw Indian cricket making a smooth transition across generations and going on to dominate world cricket for a long time.

The T20 event of 2007 was special for not only it was Dhoni’s first tournament as the captain or that Yuvraj Singh smashed six sixes in one over but also because of Joginder Sharma’s final over against Pakistan in the final and a remarkable return to the match and winning it after conceding a six. Misbah-ul-Haq, who was on the course to take Pakistan to victory, mis-scooped one only to find S Sreesanth at fine leg and India won the game by 5 runs.

It could have happened that day only

Years later, one of the members of that side, Harbhajan Singh, shared an incident from that memorable victory. Speaking to India Today, the Turbanator said when asked what would have happened had the former Kerala cricketer spilled that catch: “It’s about luck, Misbah couldn’t execute the shot properly and on that day Sreesanth executed his work properly. Normally he’s not good with the execution. So what happened with Sreesanth after the World Cup in the IPL could have happened on that day only.”

It may be recalled here that Harbhajan found himself in an ugly controversy after he allegedly slapped Sreesanth after a match in the first edition of the Indian Premier League which started the very next year after India’s South Africa crown. Sreesanth was playing for Kings XI Punjab then while Singh played for Mumbai Indians.

Former Pakistani captain Misbah was also present in the show when Bhajji spoke. He said he played that shot that got him out well but couldn’t execute that on that big match day.

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