Former Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq recalled the heartbreaking defeat to Team India in the 2007 T20 World Cup final, claiming that overconfidence plotted their downfall in Johannesburg. Misbah recalled admitting on the day that chasing 158 is not that difficult a task.
With the Men in Green needing 158 to win the final, the match went down to the last over when it came down to 13. It came down to 6 off 4 deliveries when Misbah played a scoop and Sreesanth took a simple catch at short-fine leg, thereby bowling Pakistan out. The right-handed batter was down to his hunches as Pakistan fell an agonizing five runs short of a World Cup win.
Speaking in a video uploaded by Star Sports, the 50-year-old reflected on how they spoke about at the mid-innings that a good start is all Pakistan require to hunt down the score.
"We thought ke ye to koi mushkil runs nahi hain (not a difficult target to chase), just need a good start. But I think losing quick wickets in 2-3 overs, the run-out of Imran Nazir, that basically put pressure on us. At one point we were 77 for 6. So because of the fall of wickets, the target became difficult. Mujhe lagta hai overconfident ho ke hi kaam kharab hua (I think things went bad because of overconfidence)."
"At the Wanderers, it's very difficult for the spinners" - Misbah-ul-Haq
Misbah added that their confidence came from the fact that India were dependent on spinners and that Harbhajan Singh would struggle with the short boundaries.
"We were very confident because of the kind of pitch there was and the kind of (short) boundaries, it was very tough for India because they were dependent on their spin bowling. At the Wanderers, it's very difficult for the spinners usually and their main bowler at that time was Harbhajan Singh. For an offspinner to bowl with short side boundaries there (was tough), and usually we play spin well."
However, Pakistan won the very next edition in 2009, hosted by England.
