Twenty20 World Cup Final

India lift the first-ever Twenty20 Championship.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's young Indian team snatched the inaugural Twenty20 world title after defeating arch-rivals Pakistan by five runs in a thrilling final on Monday.

India restricted to 157-5 after a good start, before reducing Pakistan to 104-7 off 16 overs. Sohail Tanvir then hit 12 runs off four balls with two huge sixes to bring Pakistan back in contention, in front of a sell-out crowd of 32,000 at the Wanderers.

Misbah and his tail-end partners took 19 runs in the 17th over bowled by spinner Harbhajan Singh, 13 in the 18th of Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and seven runs in the 19th from Rudra Pratap Singh, leaving 13 to get off the final over.

Joginder Sharma bowled a wide off the first ball and was hammered for a six by Misbah with the second legitimate ball, but gave India victory with his next delivery by taking the wicket of Misbah-ul-Haque.

Rudra Pratap and Irfan Pathan claimed three wickets each as Pakistan's jinx of never having beaten India in a World Cup or world championship match continued.

India take home the winner's purse of 490,000 dollars while Pakistan received no prize money for their efforts in the final.

Final Score:

India 157 - 5

Pakistan 152 - 10 in 19.3 overs.

Man of the Match:
Irfan Pathan

Man of the Series:
Shahid Afridi