A spell-binding T20 World Cup 2024 came to a dramatic end with India and South Africa providing moments - some happy, some not - that will live long in the memory. Here's a selection.
A catch for the ages
It went up and there was sky. It came down, and there was SKY again. Suryakumar Yadav on the long-off boundary in the 20th over, with 15 runs to defend, pulled off a catch that will be talked about like Kapil Dev's from 1983.
It was a full toss from Hardik Pandya. A wide full toss. Perhaps a mangling of a wide yorker. David Miller connected more off the bottom of the bat, but still it flew. Suryakumar was haring to his left. At full tilt. He was stretching. He shouldn't have had any balance out there going as fast as he was, but he did. Somehow. The ball came down just in front of him and he caught it. But he wasn't done. Because he was so close to the rope. Barely inches from it. So he tossed the ball up, high enough that he could step over the boundary, collect himself, step back in, and keep control of the ball all the way through. Catches win matches. This one won a World Cup.
Genius at play
It was an old ball. It looked scruffy. It shouldn't be doing these things for a fast bowler. But Jasprit Bumrah is not just a fast bowler. He is miracle made flesh. With South Africa needing 21 from 15 balls, he went wide of the crease. He landed it outside off. It screamed in between bat and pad and brought down Marco Jansen's castle with him looking utterly bewildered. This was movement off the pitch. The seam pointing in. One side of the ball ragged. The other slightly less so. Reverse? The things Bumrah does escapes the realm of sense and meaning. No one can be that good when this much is on the line.
Klaasen goes boom
One of these days, Heinrich Klaasen is going to hit a cricket ball so hard it breaks in two. He hit five sixes during a hair-raising knock. One of them, with the wind, just flew flat and hard over extra cover. Another went into the wind, and still had enough on it to clatter on to the roof. The power he has is unbelievable. Klaasen hit 70% (seven of ten) of South Africa's boundaries while he was at the crease and four of them in a single over against a previously unhittable Axar Patel. It was remarkable and he was doing it with such ease. In a World Cup final. In a South Africa shirt. For a little while, it really did feel like the curse was going to be broken.
The trap that wasn't, but was
Quinton de Kock hitting over square leg is inevitable. And that swing of his bat. Starts up high. Comes down smooth. Fully uninhibited. In the old days, Sanath Jayasuriya used to be the master of this shot. And he used to play it the same way. On instinct. So when de Kock had the opportunity to unleash it, in the 13th over of the game, he took it and found six. India immediately stationed a man there. It wasn't meant to be a trap, because it was right there in plain view, but it worked like one. Arshdeep Singh bowled the same ball. De Kock played the same shot. Only Kuldeep Yadav was there to catch it.
Kohli pulls up the anchor
Virat Kohli was playing a strange innings. He was 14 off five. Then he was 36 off 43. He'd hit only four boundaries in 48 deliveries. He and India were working on the theory that a par score would be enough. This was a final. That does things to people. So a man who had embraced a more attacking game went back to find that old trusty anchor and dropped it all the way down. Then the 18th over came along. A six and a four off Kagiso Rabada. The same dose to Jansen. India got 33 runs in two overs. Kohli finished with 26 off his last 11 balls. Later that night, he was crowned champion.