The stage was set for another yet another crushing loss. The same Team India that had lost five finals since its last ICC trophy win eleven years ago seemed to be unable to escape the ghosts of finals past, wasting over after over as South Africa marched to 147/4 with five overs and six wickets to spare. Needing 30 runs off the final 30 balls, a once-fearsome India appeared destitute. 

Pacer Jasprit Bumrah strode out to the pitch with his side’s win probability as calculated by ESPNCricinfo sitting at a hopeless 3.35%, as South Africa’s Henrik Klaasen and David Miller wreaked havoc on India’s spinners for much of the post-drinks session. He bowled his third over of the match with the usual aggression many have grown accustomed to seeing from him over the years, allowing just four runs with three dot balls. However, his inability to nab the crucial fifth wicket of the innings meant his efforts could only increase his side’s win probability to a measly 3.39%. In the 17th over, Hardik Pandya bowled another four-run over while also picking up the massive wicket of Klaasen to edge India ever closer, but their win probability still stood at just 9.31% as the South Africans needed 22 runs off the final 18 balls with five wickets in hand. Bumrah stepped onto his wicket again for his final over of the match, representing 1.5 billion people in a desperate last stand to recapture World Cup glory. With a nation on his back, the world’s greatest bowler had made his mind up before the first ball of the over had even been bowled.

He would not let them go down today.

His first ball was as clear an indication of intent as could be, as Bumrah’s hurl was past Miller before the batsman could blink, missing the wicket by a matter of inches. A second dot for as many balls renewed Indian hopes, with 22 now being needed off the final 16. A single brought the imposing Marco Jansen to the strike, a man who once took Bumrah for his first career wicket at the international level in a Test match in Centurion. Bumrah unleashed a beauty of a ball for the all-important sixth wicket of the innings, and after cleaning up with a dot and a single to end the over India’s win probability now stood at a once unthinkable 41.09%, needing to defend 20 runs over the last 12 balls.

With the momentum completely shifted, Arshdeep Singh allowed just four runs in the 19th over to push India firmly into winning position, now needing to defend 16 runs for the final over. With Hardik Pandya given the ball, Miller lofted a deep shot that was caught…no, dropped for six…no, caught again…by Suryakumar Yadav on a catch that will surely go down as one of the greatest in the sport’s illustrious history before allowing eight on the final five to secure a stunning comeback for India to claim their second T20 World Cup Title. 

For his efforts, Bumrah was awarded with the Player of the Series trophy and all but cemented his status as not just the greatest bowler, but player in world cricket. Virat Kohli was awarded with Man of the Match honors for his 76-run knock off 59 balls that stabilized a crumbling Indian innings early on before a late onslaught of boundaries inspired the Men in Blue to a 176-run total. Both Kohli and Sharma announced their T20I retirements after claiming their first ICC World Cup title as a duo. The two legends of the game bow out from the T20 format having cemented their legacies with the one accolade they had longed for years to achieve, with Rohit having last won seventeen years ago and Kohli never having won at this tournament before finishing off in style with a MOTM-worthy knock in the final. 

For South Africa, the hunt for their first World Cup title marches on, but not without more hope than they’ve had in years as a new generation of South African cricket waits on the horizon with no shortage of all-around talent. For India, the celebrations can begin in earnest, as missed opportunities of the past can leave the nation’s collective consciousness with the capture of a spectacular white whale.