India vs Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq admits he ‘got overconfident’ in playing scoop shot in 2007 T20 World Cup final

Former Pakistan batter Misbah-ul-Haq admitted that he mistimed the shot on which he has the most confidence in the 2007 T20 World Cup.

File image (Source: Twitter)

Former Pakistan batter Misbah-ul-Haq is surely among the iconic players from the nation and he hogged all the headlines for his expensive improvisation in the final of the inaugural ICC T20 World Cup in 2007 against arch-rivals India, which probably cost Pakistan the title.

While chasing 158, Misbah was the last hope for Pakistan alive at the crease, he batted till the end and a victory looked on the cards but something else was destined to happen as in the very last over of the match, which was bowled by Joginder Sharma, Misbah handed an easy catch to S Sreesanth after mistiming a scoop shot, which resulted in MS Dhoni-led India’s historic victory in South Africa.

Now, after more than 14 years of that mistimed shot and a missed opportunity for Pakistan, Misbah admitted that he might have been “overconfident” in attempting the scoop shot.

Misbah recently spoke about that moment, especially about that shot in a conversation with former Pakistan teammates Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Yousuf.

“In 2007, I always say that throughout every game, I scored so many fours playing that shot. Even with the fine leg in place, I was taking singles while playing that shot against Australia. Against spinners, I used to beat fine leg with that shot,” Misbah said.

“So, you can say I got overconfident. I mistimed the shot on which I had the most confidence.”

Also, talking about the 2011 ODI World Cup semi-final, where India defeated Pakistan, Misbah said that he didn't get enough strike to make a difference.

“In 2011, on that Mohali pitch, India had scored 44 (39/0) in 4 overs. When the ball got older, it started to reverse, it started gripping and runs were harder to get. Sachin scored 80-something (85) and he was man of the match. India were struggling after that start,” Misbah said.

"Even we had put around 80 runs in the first 15 overs, losing only one wicket. In the next few overs, we hardly scored runs and lost three wickets. There was Yuvraj at one end, Harbhajan at the other, and then fast bowlers also came in. Singles were the most difficult. Either you hit it out or try and grind in.

“Throughout the World Cup, we were scoring heavily in the batting powerplay towards the end. The thought was that even if we needed 100 runs in the final 10 overs, we had a batting powerplay of five overs. If we had wickets in hand, we could've easily chased it down. I was standing alone in the final five overs of powerplay and I got to play only 2 overs. We lost the game by 20-22 runs and I didn't play three overs of powerplay at all. There was no batsman at the other end.”

Meanwhile, Misbah-ul-Haq is currently leading Asia Lions in Legends League Cricket and his side will take on World Giants in the final of the tournament on January 29 (Saturday).