Tony Becca

The ICC Twenty20 cricket championship ended at the "Bull Ring", at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, yesterday and what a contest it was - even for those who do not profess any love, any appreciation for the shortest version of the game.

After 14 days and 27 matches the tournament, set to become the most exciting format of the game according to Kapil Dev, the former swashbuckling all-rounder and captain of India, and definitely so more that the 50-over version according to Wasim Akram, the former left-arm swing bowler and captain of Pakistan, India and Pakistan, brothers, neighbours and arch rivals, met to determine the champions of the inaugural tournament and in the end, before a bumper crowd and after an exciting contest, in a thrilling, tension and drama packed climax, it was India by a mere five runs with only three deliveries to spare.

In 1987, in the World Cup in India and Pakistan, everything was set up for a final between India, the defending champions, and Pakistan at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta.

After getting to the semi-finals, however, India were destroyed in Bombay by England, Pakistan were beaten in Lahore by Australia and the dream of every Indian and of every Pakistani around the world was destroyed.

Clash of the century

The clash of the century, the super shoot-out, had gone up in flames.

Twenty years later, however, with Australia and South Africa the pre-tournament favourites, with Pakistan and India travelling home early in the World Cup and hardly anyone giving them a chance, and with India knocking off South Africa and then Australia in the semi-final, with Pakistan easing past New Zealand in the other semi-final, it was India versus Pakistan and the "Bull Ring", crammed with Indians and Pakistanis, vibrated, for less than three hours, with the excitement of it all.

Twenty20 cricket may never match the class and the quality of Test cricket but it could, because of its duration, because of its racing, pulsating action from start to finish, and despite its possible effect on the art of batting, surpass everything else in cricket when it comes to excitement and particularly so for those of the younger generation - those who did not see, those who were not blessed to see batsmen such as Frank Worrell, Peter May, Tom Graveney and Lawrence Rowe, in action.

They, each and every one of them, were batsmen of class - batsmen who thrilled the fans of yesterday with majestic strokeplay - a bat in their hands, in the hands of one like Denis Compton or one like Rohan Kanhai, like a wand in a magician's hand.

Excitement

Cricket, however, is a game of bat and ball, of the sound of bat on ball, and to the millions of fans of who watched the tournament on television, to the thousands upon thousands who filed into the Wanderers, then into Kingsmead in Durban and into Newlands in Cape Town and back again into the Wanderers, excitement was what they wanted and with the batsmen hitting the ball, almost every delivery to the boundary and over the boundary, with the ball flying off the edge and out of the middle, with the fielders throwing themselves at every delivery and bringing off some brilliant saves and some unbelievable catches, with Chris Gayle hitting 10 sixes while smashing 117 off 57 deliveries, with Yuvraj Singh of India hitting six sixes in one over against England, smashing 70 off 30 deliveries against Australia, and with Sri Lanka blasting 260 for six against Kenya, they got their money's worth - every last cent of it.

And yesterday was something special. This was it, it was India versus Pakistan. The two teams had played to a tie earlier in the tournament and it was a ding dong battle from the beginning to the end - to when, with Pakistan needing 13 runs from the last over, Misbah-ul-Haq hit a full toss from pacer Jovinder Sharma straight down the ground for six, to when, with Pakistan needing five from four deliveries, Misbah-ul-Haq, attempting a Twenty20 shot, went inside, way outside the off-stump, tried to lift the ball over the wicketkeeper and down to fine leg and was caught by Shanthakumaran Sreesanth at fine-leg.

With the fans racing onto the field, with the members of the Indian team jogging around the ground with each man carrying the Indian flag which fluttered in the breeze, it was a good match between two teams, neither of whom deserved to have lost and a great match which, whether you like it or not, was a fitting end to an exciting and wonderful tournament.