T20 World Cup 2007 | ‘I got overconfident’ says Misbah-ul-Haq about his scoop shot in the 2007 T20 World Cup final
Misbah-ul-Haq has admitted that he might have been overconfident in playing the scoop shot in the final of 2007 T20 World Cup against India, He also added that if Pakistan had wickets in hand, they would’ve easily chased target in the semi-final of the 2011 ODI World Cup hosted in Mohali.
The inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup was played in 2007 and a young Indian side clinched the title. India beat arch-rivals Pakistan by five runs in the final. Misbah-ul-Haq was playing a good knock for Pakistan while chasing a total of 158. However, he attempted a scoop shot in the last over by Joginder Sharma but handed an easy catch to Sreesanth after mistiming the hit.
Reflecting back on the fixture. Misbah admitted that he was overconfident in attempting the scoop shot.
“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,” Misbah said in a conversation with Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Yousuf.
“So, you can say I got overconfident. I mistimed the shot on which I had the most confidence.”
Misbah was the last man standing in another World Cup clash against India. He played a knock of 56 runs but was unable to win the match for the team in the semi-final of 2011 ODI World Cup against India. Misbah said that they were planning a late burst in the run-chase, however continuous fall of wickets from other end resulted in him not getting enough strike to make a difference.
“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,” he concluded.
"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. There was Yuvraj at one end, Harbhajan at the other, and then fast bowlers also came in. Singles were the most difficult. Either you hit it out or try and grind in.”
“Throughout the World Cup, we were scoring heavily in the batting powerplay towards the end. The thought was that even if we needed 100 runs in the final 10 overs, we had a batting powerplay of five overs. If we had wickets in hand, we could've easily chased it down. I was standing alone in the final five overs of powerplay and I got to play only 2 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.”
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