How many teams train for low-probability events? It can make a big difference, as both of India’s T20 World Cup cricket triumphs demonstrate. In 2007, when India beat Pakistan in the final match, we had a psychological edge going into it for having beaten the latter in a league match by means of a spectacular but unprecedented tie-breaker called a bowl-out.
In this rarest of rare cases, both were tied at 141 runs in 20 overs. The odds of this are very slim, but India had actually practised bowl-outs—and won 3-0. The Cup clincher of Saturday’s final against South Africa was Suryakumar Yadav’s splendid last-over catch that dismissed David Miller. Saving a six as a fielder, a running Yadav stopped the ball within the boundary, popped it back into the air while he flitted off the field to keep balance, and then hopped back into play-space to gather it safely in his hands.
This athletic feat of rule abidance to dislodge a wicket isn’t new. It was pulled off even more elegantly by Harleen Deol earlier. Our latest Cup winners had reportedly been trained for such catches, though. That’s very reassuring to hear. Being ready for the ordinary counts, but it’s often prep work for the extraordinary that wins.