The perfect finale

A jubilant India team explode in celebration moments after winning the ICC World Twenty20 Championship at the Wanderers in Johannesburg yesterday.Photo: AFP

India v Pakistan has always been too emotionally wrought for the laws of probability to matter and in the inaugural final of World Twenty20 it defied all predictions. India won it, lost it, and finally won it by five runs as the man who had threatened to defy them at the last, Misbah-ul-Haq, slumped disconsolately on his haunches at the bowler's end.
It had been the quality of Pakistan's bowling attack that had carried them into the final, and in front of a screeching capacity crowd in Johannesburg, it was their batting which ultimately succumbed to the pressures of a historic occasion, a slightly uneven pitch and cricket's most intense rivalry.
How Misbah made India sweat. At 33, with only a handful of Tests and ODIs to his name, his greatest accolade before his tournament was to be described by Wisden as "an orthodox batsman of reasonable technique". But he has spent the past fortnight launching sixes, and there were another four in his 43 yesterday as Pakistan, needing 54 from four overs with four wickets left, almost came back from the dead.
Three balls into the final over, Misbah tried to bring the scores level, scooping Joginder Sharma over short fine leg, only to be defeated as Sreesanth ran backwards to take the catch. As India celebrated, Misbah was consoled by the umpire, Mark Benson, one Englishman happy to be involved at least. Benson and Simon Taufel have had excellent tournaments.
India, so suspicious of Twenty20, will now surrender to it. The final was a place to be seen, with Shahrukh Khan, one of Bollywood's biggest stars, regally acknowledging the crowd's screams as they saw him on the big screen.
But the star who really mattered was Gautam Gambhir, the Indian left-hander, whose classy 75 from 54 balls identified him even in the hurly-burly of Twenty20 as a Test-class opener. His parting shot was a ferocious pull against Umar Gul which thudded against the scoreboard, as if in rebuke for its failure to move forward at the expected rate.
But India's bowlers fought back. RP Singh ripped out two with the new ball - Kamran Akmal's promotion to No3 failing as he was bowled third ball. The bonus wicket, though, was that of Imran Nazir. He flayed Sreesanth's opening over, 21 runs in all, and had 33 from 14 balls when Younis Khan, not the best judge of a single, called him for one to mid-off. Robin Uthappa's direct hit beat him by inches, and Imran made a disgruntled exit. If Younis felt obliged to see the innings through, he did not show it and departed to a terrible mishit to mid-on.
India's innings had begun with a false start. Yusuf Pathan, a sturdy 24-year-old batsman from Gujarat, had never played for India, but Virender Sehwag was injured so his debut came in extraordinary circumstances. When Gambhir pushed the first ball into the covers for a single, Pathan was transfixed. Had he been watching Twenty20? He dived into his ground and made it by inches. Three balls later, he got off the mark with a straight six. He had soon got the hang of it.
With India 40 for two from six overs, more exploits were demanded from Yuvraj Singh. After six sixes in an over against England and a staggering 70 from 30 balls to oust Australia in the semi-finals, it was asking a lot. He was tentative, his timing entirely awry.
While Gambhir went crisply past 50, Yuvraj looked disconsolate and changed his bat. Umar Gul was an insistent opponent in mid-innings; the leg-side boundaries must have retreated by the minute. His first attempt to clear them gave Gul a simple return catch. Yuvraj had made 14 from 19 balls, and at that point India was in anguish.
The dismissal of their captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, infuriated India: a head-high beamer from Umar Gul that might have killed him, followed by a bouncer that again demanded evasive action, and then his stumps efficiently splayed by a full-length ball. Gul apologised for the beamer, and it was an intended slower ball that might well have borne no malice, but it has become too prevalent and action must be taken.
This rogue delivery is punished so little in Twenty20 that the resulting no-ball does not even come with a free-hit attached. If the ICC will not consider automatic suspension or automatic removal from the attack, then a heavy run penalty is essential. Whatever Javed Miandad might have suggested the other day, this is not baseball. It is far better than that.