The Indian cricket team emerged as the first-ever champions of the T20 World Cup in 2007. They defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in the final in Johannesburg on September 24. Before the final, India faced
mighty Australia in the semi-finals in Durban on September 22, 2007. After a great performance in the group stage, India were now set to lock horns with the ODI World Cup champions that year. With Yuvraj Singh taking charge with the bat, India stunned Australia in the semi-final to reach the final of the 2007 T20 World Cup.
India were coming after registering victories against big teams like Pakistan, England and South Africa in their previous matches of the 2007 T20 World Cup. However, they lost against New Zealand in their first Group E match. Now, they were set to face Australia in the semi-finals against whom they lost the ODI World Cup final in 2003. Coming to bat first after winning the toss in a big match, India lost both their openers (Virendra Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir) at the score of 41 runs after eight overs. After that Yuvraj Singh came to take charge of the innings.
Yuvraj Singh smashed 70(30) runs as India defeated Australia by 15 runs
After smashing 58(16) runs against England including six sixes in an over, Yuvraj Singh went on to miss the fixture against South Africa and came back in the Indian line-up for the semi-final against Australia. Coming to bat at 41/2 after eight overs, Yuvraj went on to smash 70 runs off just 30 balls as India posted a total of 188/5 in their 20 overs. During his knock, the left-hander scored five fours and five sixes. He also got support from Robin Uthappa (34 off 28) and skipper MS Dhoni (36 off 18) as India crossed the 180-run mark.
Coming to chase the winning target, Australia lost their first wicket in the form of skipper Adam Gilchrist at the score of 36 runs in 5.1 overs. After that, Matthew Hayden went on to score 62(47) runs with four fours and four sixes, before getting out to S Sreesanth in the 15th over. Andrew Symonds tried to take the Aussies to the finishing line but got after scoring 43(26) runs but got out in the 17th over. In the end, Australia could only reach the score of 173/7 at the end of 20 overs, losing the match by 15 runs.
For India, S Sreesanth took two wickets by conceding just 12 runs in four overs. Apart from that, Irfan Pathan and Joginder Sharma also took 2-2 wickets each. Yuvraj Singh was adjudged Player of the Match for his fiery knock of 70(30). After defeating Australia in the semi-finals, India went on to defeat Pakistan by five runs in the final to win the first-ever T20 World Cup in 2007.
