The grand finale of the world cup Twenty20 tournament was a real thrilling clash between old rivals India and Pakistan. Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s young team snatched the inaugural Twenty20 world champs title after defeating Pakistan by five runs on Monday. India’s young cricket team produced sterling performances and prevailed in a thrill-a-minute final match of the tournament on Monday evening.

The best part of the whole Monday drama from Indian side was that Sehwag (missed the final because of injuries), Yuvraj, Dhoni, Harbhajan haven’t performed well in the final match if we talk about batting and bowling departments but India won the cup due to the stunning team effort and great deeds to win.

Gautam Gambhir, Rudra Pratap Singh, Rohit Sharma and Irfan Pathan came up with heroic efforts to help India score a last-over victory in the champion-deciding match. But yes, all praised MS Dhoni for the way he used the bowlers to restrict the Pakistan’s strong batting line-up less than 150.

When Pakistan was in need of 13 runs in the last over to be bowled by Joginder Sharma with one wicket in hand, Misbah-ul-Haq was on strike who had changed the direction of the game by hitting three sixes to Harbhajan Singh. It was anyone’s game at that time. Indian fans got the jitters when Joginder bowled a wide delivery and then got hit for a straight six by Misbah.

All hopes went down all of a sudden as the equation went down to six from five balls. Then, Joginder produced an important dot ball and then Misbah moved out towards the off stump and lofted the ball in the air straight to S Sreesanth, who took a well-judged catch at square leg and made India world champs in cricket after 24 years.

India, who had lost the final of the 2003 World Cup to Australia at this same venue, scored a memorable victory much to the delight of the majority of the crowd that had been backing them.

BCCI President Sharad Pawar, Actor Shah Rukh Khan and Business Tycoon Vijay Malaya were at hand to witness India take home the winning trophy with prize money of $490,000.

The Indian cricket board announced a separate bonus of two million dollars for the triumphant team, which had played just one Twenty20 international before the tournament and were without senior pros Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly.

MS Dhoni said after wining the title:

It was a real team effort. I am so proud of my team for fighting till the end and never giving up hope.

I had told them before the match that all I needed was 100 percent effort; it did not matter if we won or lost. We gave it our all and won in the end.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led a delighted nation in showering honor on their cricket team. PM Manmohan Singh said that the team played well and made us all proud. Keep it going team India. He also complimented Pakistan’s fine display.

Later, the BCCI announced a cash bonus of $3 million to the squad and 10 million rupees ($251,889) to batsman Yuvraj Singh for hitting six sixes in one over against England.

Sachin Tendulkar said on Indian team’s victory that the future of the Indian cricket is in safe hands. He praised Dhoni by calling him as man of balanced character. He congratulated young team India for making the country proud with repeated stunning performances against teams such as Pakistan, South Africa, England and most importantly Australia in the tournament.