Cricket’s attempt to break through in the United States had a Hollywood ending.
South Africa looked set to win the T20 World Cup but India came back to take the title in a final twist.
During the final, the events of the past tournaments flashed before us.
For India, it was the pain of defeat in the 50-over World Cup final eight months ago. That day, a crowd of 90,000 had arrived in Ahmedabad, but Australia had read the wrong script.
Before that, there was the thrashing of England in Adelaide in 2022, the defeat to New Zealand in the rain of Manchester in 2019 and the loss to the West Indies in 2016, again in front of an expectant home crowd, since their last World Cup win.
India had already won at least one. For South Africa, the past was nothing but pain.
The rain in Sydney, Allan Donald’s failure in 1999, the arithmetic error in 2003 and Grant Elliott at Eden Park in 2015. It all came back into the story.
Either way, it would be an emotional finale, in which inner demons had to be conquered.
Virat Kohli rushed towards Hardik Pandya to hug him, while Rohit Sharma fell to the ground in celebration.
This was the redemption of Rohit, India’s captain here as he was during last year’s disappointment.
After starring in The Agony of Ahmedabad, he has completed its sequel: The Kensington Coronation.
Kohli won the 2011 50-overs World Cup as part of the supporting cast, with the then 22-year-old lifting the great Sachin Tendulkar on his shoulders in a victory lap.
This time he was the leading man.
He had a tough time during this tournament, struggling as India went through the group stages and the semi-finals unbeaten, but he was always lurking, like the villain who was never defeated.
Kohli hit three fours in his first four balls. Then he continued to lean casually against his bat, one arm on his hip. He was back.
His nonchalant tap on the roof of the Sir Garfield Sobers Pavilion will be a moment that will be repeated time and again – as will Suryakumar Yadav’s strike at the death and Jasprit Bumrah’s brutal dismissal of Reeza Hendricks, which was enough to send batters around the world hiding behind the bank.
Rohit and Kohli stood arm in arm cheering during the celebrations before announcing they would be leaving the stage. This was their last T20 international.
South Africa’s players, on the other hand, are characters that make your heart beat faster.
As the trophy presentation began, David Miller dropped to his knees and stared at the ground, while Heinrich Klaasen had tears in his eyes.
This was almost a story about Klaasen, who took the Proteas to the brink with 52 from 27 balls, before being consoled in the outfield by his wife and young daughter.
Some will say that the South Africa of previous years has returned. Others can rightly claim that India was simply too good.
In Bumrah they have the best bowler in the world – a man who conceded just 18 runs from his 24 balls and will go down as one of the greats.
Kuldeep Yadav had a rare off day in the final, but the past two weeks have shown him to be the game’s best spinner, while Rohit’s 92 against Australia was one of the best knocks of the past four weeks.
When push came to shove, Rohit called upon his all-rounder Hardik, who delivered while his Proteas opponent Marco Jansen failed.
The victory was wildly celebrated in the stands by India fans who had flown to Barbados in recent days.
Elsewhere, others will roll their eyes.
The Rocky theme was playing at the Kensington Oval last week as England took on the USA, but this was no underdog story.
India, already a dominant force in the World Cup, advanced by being the only country to know in advance where the semi-final would be played.
It didn’t matter, England would have been beaten convincingly at Lord’s as well as Guyana. But avoiding such a situation is one of the small adjustments that could improve the T20 World Cup.
Changing the draw so that India plays Pakistan and England plays Australia may add some money to the coffers, but it will also make the match cheaper.
A week could have been taken off this tournament if it had gone straight from the first stage to the quarter-finals and also just moved to the Caribbean. Two group stages are never necessary.
The International Cricket Council should also thank Josh Hazlewood because if Australia had not been shocked by the reaction to his ill-considered words about manipulating their result against Scotland, a farcical situation might have unfolded on the field.
But overall this was the best of the three men’s World Cups, two T20 and one 50-over match, squeezed in over the past 21 months.
Its biggest success was that it was the first to go truly global – with twenty teams.
There may have been one-sided matches in the group stage, but the presence of Uganda, Papua New Guinea, the USA, Nepal and other smaller nations brought freshness and excitement.
Uganda’s 39 runs and Oman being beaten by England inside 17 overs were negatives, but they were more than offset by the USA’s iconic win over Pakistan, Papua New Guinea’s close win over hosts West Indies and Brandon McMullen’s fantastic performance for Scotland.
It is both these moments and the final that we will remember this tournament.
But ultimately it is the name of India that comes into the light.
