T20 World Cup 2024 Final: Inside the Morning India Changed Its Story

The Hindu

a day ago

Even before the sun had fully risen, the streets of Bridgetown had started to stir. Minibuses hummed past in short bursts. Vendors were wheeling carts into place — mostly tropical fruits, and some fried fish.
A couple of kids were already knocking a tennis ball around on a quiet side street, stumps drawn in chalk on a peeling pink wall. Most shops stayed shut, but the rum shops that doubled as breakfast spots had people trickling in — eggs, black coffee, World Cup predictions.
There wasn't a rush. Just a low, steady sense that something was building.
The walk from town to Kensington Oval didn't take long, but you could feel the shift. More people wore India shirts or draped flags — some West Indies fans too, who were there just for the game. A group of South Africans in yellow were taking selfies outside a closed souvenir shop.
Everywhere you went in Barbados, people greeted each other with easy warmth. Car horns weren't angry — they were friendly toots, quick hellos. People waved out of vans, shouted greetings across streets, whistled to old friends. You got the feeling that no one passed by unnoticed. Bajans seemed to carry a kind of joy in being seen — and in seeing each other.
I was running on little sleep and too much adrenaline. Even then, I knew: this wasn't just the start of another match. Something bigger was coming.
And now, a year on, I can still recall that morning more sharply than most final scores I've filed. The haze over the sea. The way the flags on the roof ruffled. That strange calm before the cricket began. With time, you expect the result to remain, and the rest to fade. But here, it's the opposite. It's the mood that lingers. Not the margin. Not the trophy. The mood.
The Kensington Oval wasn't just a neutral venue. It was a stage steeped in cricket's memory. | Photo Credit: AYAN ACHARYA
Kensington Oval wears its history on its skin. The stands are named not for sponsors, but for giants — Hall and Griffith, Greenidge and Haynes, Worrell, Weekes, and Walcott. A stadium that doesn't just stage cricket but remembers it.
When it was modernised for the 2007 World Cup, the ground kept its soul. It still sits within walking distance of Bridgetown's bustle, still feels like part of the city rather than walled off from it.
And on this day, with India chasing something it hadn't held in over a decade, that sense of place mattered. This wasn't just a neutral venue. It was a stage steeped in cricket's memory — where old echoes lingered and something new was about to be written.
By 9 a.m., the ground had begun to flutter. The early arrivals filtered in — most sporting the Indian blue, some in the Protean green. On the outfield, players went through warm-ups in scattered routines: fielding drills, throwdowns, quiet huddles. The Indian team looked composed but coiled, like they knew what was at stake but didn't want to show it too early.
From the press box, you could feel the hum building. Not noise yet — just pressure. A final is never just a match, especially not for India. Every choice, every moment would ripple back home, across millions of screens, through years of heartbreak and waiting.
This wasn't just another day at Kensington Oval. It was about to become a part of India's cricket memory — or its extended heartbreak.
I remember telling myself — this was the first World Cup final I was covering. The one small relief? I wasn't writing the match report. That was my senior's job. So, there I was... observing, soaking it in, picking moments that would maybe make sense only in hindsight. I had space — to watch, to think, to worry.
And I did worry. My mind drifted, as it sometimes does when things are too still, too tense. It went back to St. Lucia and India's final Super Eight game. India had started well in its defence, but then Travis Head had begun gnawing away at that required run rate, again. For a good 20 minutes, it felt like November 19, 2023 all over again. You could almost hear every Indian fan mutter the same thing: Not again. Not him. Not now.
Then Bumrah got him. Slower off-cutter. Caught. Relief.
But just as I was playing that moment back in my head, I looked up and saw Rohit Sharma walking back. Early. Too early. He'd batted like a man possessed all tournament — power, intent, calm — and suddenly he was gone. The kind of dismissal that doesn't crash your hopes, but tilts the floor under your feet just slightly.
And in that pause, that fragile quiet after Rohit's fall, the thought crept in: What if this is another one of those days? So close. Yet so far.
Kohli was still there. And in a way, that steadied things. His batting wasn't fluent — it hadn't been for much of the tournament — but there was something immovable about him that day. He played like someone who knew his role in this script wasn't to dominate, but to endure. The runs didn't come easy, but the silence between them was his to control.
Kohli knew the pitch conditions weren't going to allow anyone to blaze through. | Photo Credit: AYAN ACHARYA
It wasn't vintage Kohli. But it was something else — methodical, self-aware, maybe even stubborn. You could sense he knew that the conditions weren't going to allow anyone to blaze through. And so he chose to hold, to absorb, to stay.
But the innings needed more than that. It needed energy. A break from the weight. It needed Axar Patel.
And what he gave them — what he gave India — was beyond anything you'd have reasonably asked of a No. 5 on World Cup final day.
He came in with the pitch slow, the pressure thick, and the opposition circling. Yet, he batted with a clarity that cut right through the moment. No panic. No playing for time. Just clean, confident hitting mixed with smart risk.
Each boundary from his bat was like a crack in the anxiety. Especially that six over long-on off Kagiso Rabada — short backlift, no flourish, just timing. It didn't lift the roof; it shifted the mood.
From where I sat, you could feel the press box sit forward, as if everyone had sensed it at once: this partnership matters. And it wasn't Kohli dragging Axar along. It was Axar giving Kohli the room to breathe.
Kohli was methodical, self-aware, maybe even stubborn. | Photo Credit: AYAN ACHARYA
That stand didn't explode. It simmered. And that was enough.
Axar kept picking the gaps, manipulating the field. Kohli stayed anchored, letting the overs tick by. They weren't just adding runs; they were soaking up overs India might not have survived otherwise.
For a brief period, the Oval's noise even dipped — not because the crowd lost interest, but because the match had entered one of those tight coils of control that only great teams create under pressure.
When Axar got run out, it was a gut punch — but by then, the damage had been done. He'd kept South Africa scrambling for answers, and ensured the innings had direction.
Then came that final push — Shivam Dube's sixes, Kohli finding rhythm just in time, the scoreboard nudging toward defendable. You could feel the noise return. Flags waving harder. Chants growing louder.
Kohli and Axar's stand didn't explode. It simmered. And that was enough. | Photo Credit: AYAN ACHARYA
In the space of 20 overs, the mood had turned — from nerves and flashbacks to belief. Not swagger. Not yet. But belief.
It wasn't a towering total. But it had something far more important — context. Pressure. A pitch that had slowed. A team that had fought for every run.
And somewhere deep down, everyone watching knew: this could be enough.
It almost wasn't.
For 15 overs of South Africa's chase, it felt like the match was slipping, inch by inch, out of India's grasp. Reeza Hendricks had gone early, but Quinton de Kock kept them ticking. Then Heinrich Klaasen walked in and turned the screws.
They weren't just surviving. They were building. De Kock and Klaasen began to close the gap, over by over. And for the first time all day, you could feel the stadium start to lean back instead of forward.
Then came that over from Arshdeep Singh. De Kock picked the length early and pulled him over fine-leg for four. Not a slog — just clean, casual brutality. The kind that tells you: they're not chasing anymore; they're controlling.
From the press box, it felt like the air had dropped a few degrees. And at that very moment, Jasprit Bumrah walked over to Rohit. Just a gesture. A point. Then a nod. Seconds later, Kuldeep Yadav was being moved to deep fine-leg.
Next ball — short, on the body — De Kock pulled again. Same shot. Same plan. But this time, it went exactly where they'd just moved the man. Straight to him.
Caught.
No celebration, not yet. But the press box sat up again.
You could feel it — a door creaking open where it had just seemed shut.
Klaasen still looked dangerous. Too dangerous — 52 off 27 balls, striking at will, making even Bumrah look mortal. Every hit was a dagger. When he launched Kuldeep into the stands, the hush returned. From the dugout to the dressing room, you could sense it: panic edging toward despair.
Twenty-six needed off 24. That's what it came down to. And if you were there, you remember the silence. Not the loud kind — the still kind. The sort of hush that comes only when a dream stands on the edge of collapse.
Then came the turn.
Hardik Pandya to Klaasen. Full. Rushed. Edged. Caught by the wicketkeeper. The roar that followed wasn't joy — it was release.
You could see it on the players' faces. They weren't celebrating yet. They were just breathing again.
The next over, Arshdeep gave up just four runs. And just like that, belief returned — not because the match was won, but because it was alive again.
When Pandya ran in to bowl the final over, South Africa still needed 16. He had the ball, and with it, the chance to finish a decade-long arc of pain.
He did.
And when the last wicket fell — Keshav Maharaj, caught trying to clear the rope — the Oval didn't erupt. It exhaled. India had won. By seven runs. Just enough.
India, for once, didn't chase a miracle or surrender to fate. | Photo Credit: AYAN ACHARYA
Rohit was down on all fours, pounding the turf in elation. Less than a year ago, he had stood in silence in Ahmedabad, watching Australia snatch the World Cup that India had seemed destined to win. Now, under a different sky, he let it all out.