So finally Rohit Sharma's Team India ended the drought of not winning an ICC trophy and defeated South Africa in the final with an impressive performance with both bat and ball. This was India's third T20 World Cup final and their first win since the first tournament in 2007. It was surprising that they were not able to win despite IPL's dominance over global T20 cricket for years. Finally, the glory of victory came to Captain Rohit Sharma's team. India won its first World Cup title in any format since 2011.

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India was the favourite on record: Before this final against South Africa, India was ahead 14-11 in 25 completed T20 matches and had won 4 of these 6 T20 World Cup matches but South Africa had won the most recent match – a group match in Perth in 2022. Even then India was on the back foot in terms of preparation for the final – immediately after the semi-final against England, they reached Barbados from Guyana on a charter flight and got only one day for the final. Anyway, it proved that the 100 percent record in this World Cup was not wrong.

South Africa did not let go of the psychological label of bran: This was South Africa's first match and India's second in this World Cup at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown (first: against Afghanistan in Super 8) and South Africa were labelled chokers. The way the match went – victory was in their hands and they needed 30 runs from 30 balls. From here they choked – needing only 26 runs from 24 balls and Heinrich Klaasen in top gear, India still took them by storm.

Take the catch, win the match: It is an old saying in cricket – even today the catch taken by Kapil Dev to dismiss Viv Richards in the 1983 final is remembered. The same happened here and on the first ball of the last over of the final, when South Africa needed 16 runs to win – Suryakumar Yadav caught the big hit of the last specialist batsman David Miller on the boundary. Ran from wide long off, lofted the ball in the air, crossed the rope without touching it and caught it on the rebound. This will probably be the best catch of any T20 World Cup final.

The victory is not of one but of many superstars: It was surprising that India's spinners were thrashed (conceded 106 runs in 9 overs) but the pacers became super stars. If Virat Kohli held the innings together with 76 runs in batting, then Jasprit Bumrah's 2-18 in 4 overs (these wickets were on those two balls on which wickets were inevitable), Axar Patel's partnership of 47 and 72 runs, Arshdeep's 2-20 which included only 8 runs in two power play overs and the valuable wicket of Aiden Markram and Hardik's 3-20 in 3 overs – these kept India in the match.

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Rohit Sharma's captaincy factor: Not everyone was supporting Rohit Sharma being made the captain for this World Cup, but throughout the tournament, Rohit took masterstroke decisions at every crucial moment – ​​even in this final, instead of saving his best bowler Bumrah for later, he put him on attack when South Africa were snatching the match. That's where the break came from. He relieved India of the pressure of showing weakness in knockouts in recent months – even when the spinners were getting beaten, he did not leave the match because he had a Plan B in his mind. What happened in Adelaide in the T20 World Cup and in Ahmedabad in 50 overs in November – was not allowed to happen this time. Apart from this, the Hardik Pandya factor that rose in the IPL and with whom he had gone to play the World Cup, was not allowed to rise at all.