Rewind: India’s first ever T20 international match

Rewind: India’s first ever T20 international match: Fans cannot imagine cricket without T20 format nowadays. A format which was once sited to fail (a long time ago of course), has come a long way, being called as a “Test cricket and ODI cricket destroyer” and now finally is being universally accepted as a format on its own. And boy oh boy did it have an impact on other formats. Right from less than run a ball triple centuries, to totals crossing the 400 runs barrier quite often, T20 regardless of the views of critics and fans, it has managed to make a huge impact to other two formats. And the epic-center of T20 revolution started right in India.

And as far as India’s role is concerned, everything started on December 1^st, 2006. After quite a mediocre performance in the ODI series following a 2-1 defeat in the Tests, this match could have been considered more of a dead rubber than anything. But it was not just a dead rubber.

T20 cricket was bubbling in the cricketing universe, and it’s entertainment value being the primary attribute. With cheerleaders (now quite obsolete) cheering for every boundary or wicket, and DJ putting up songs at the background, and not to mention the entire match time being about 3-4 hours, it had enough entertainment value as a Bollywood film. Though never in anyone’s dreams back then would have guessed that India would play such an important role in the establishment of T20 cricket world-wide, it was India’s eventual victory down in the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa which broke the gears for T20 revolution. And this match was a prologue.

A team led by Sehwag (quite a coincidence, right?), following the fact that regular captain Rahul Dravid was rested, the half of the Indian team never had a prior experience in T20 cricket; which includes Sachin Tendulkar. And the SA team they were playing against consisted of some T20 specialists in the name of Loots Bosman and Albie Morkel.

SA, after winning the toss, decided to bat first. Graeme Smith, who had a horror run against India in ODIs, or rather, Zaheer Khan specifically, started off positively. But Loots Bosman was visibly struggling against Indian pacers. And quickly enough, Zaheer and Agarkar ran through the SA top order. The only fight was coming from Justin Kemp, who kept ticking up runs from his own side. But the introduction of Sachin post-Agarkar’s injury, was eventually a masterstroke as he managed to remove Kemp. And without any support from the other side of the crease, SA looked quite down and out, at 64 for 5 after 12 overs.

But then came in Albie Morkel and Van Der Wath. The former played one of the crucial knocks in SA’s historic chase against Australia just a few months back, and he paired up with Albie to take SA to a decent score. With 101 from 15 overs, a score over 140 looked positive. But another batting collapse resulted in South Africa ending up with a measly 126 on board.

The chase was expected to be a piece of cake for the visitors, and Sachin and Sehwag looked in tremendous touch. Just when both of them were looking to single-handedly take India over the victory line, Charl Langeveldt happened. Bowling with pace and steam, he managed to bag Sachin’s crucial wicket. But post the fall of the wicket, Dinesh Mongia and Virender Sehwag brought back some stability into the batting order. Despite Sehwag’s cautious but aggressive approach, India was just hovering around the required run rate due to Mongia’s slow approach. Sehwag couldn’t take India home as he was dismissed being run-out of all dismissals. Though the matter of wickets in hand was never an issue, the run rate was hovering around 7, which was quite a bit in the initial days of T20. Even the first-time captain, MS Dhoni couldn’t make an impact.

But Dinesh Karthik, a then rookie in the international arena, managed to stick around along with Mongia. He paced his innings with perfection, with Mongia playing the second fiddle. Mongia was dismissed in the 18^th over, with about 19 required from 2.3 overs. That’s when Dinesh Karthik switched gears and took India safely home with a ball to spare and 6 wickets in hand.

It has been 9 years since this eventual match, which was quite entertaining despite its premise. While 9 years down the line, the names of AB de Villers and MS Dhoni has been firmly written in the history books, most of the other players who played the match have either retired or off the international radar. And during these 9 years, the T20 cricket has revolutionary in cricket’s popularity amongst its masses, and in a manner, this match laid the foundation stone of what T20 cricket has become today.