India’s 200th T20I: 3 Most Unforgettable T20 Moments For The Indian Cricket Team-TGN

A young, inexperienced Indian cricket team led by the charismatic Hardik Pandya will take the field in first of the 5 T20I matches series against West Indies on Thursday at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, Trinidad, and will create a historic landmark as this will be Team India’s 200th T20I match.

To put this into context how mighty this achievement will be: Team India will become only the second team in the T20I history to reach 200 matches milestone; only Pakistan has played more matches (233) than India in T20Is.

India’s journey in T20Is began on December 1, 2006, against South Africa in Johannesburg, with India winning the match under Virender Sehwag’s captaincy. India have won 127 T20Is and lost 63; their Win-Loss ratio is the best in the world among all Full Member nation teams.

Here are the 3 most unforgettable moments in Indian Cricket Teams’s T20I history:

Winning the 2007 T20 World Cup 2007

India winning the 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa under the able captaincy of MS Dhoni was a seismic moment in the history of Indian cricket, or cricket itself, as that brought the audience more hooked to T20 cricket, creating the perfect environment for the IPL to take off its flight in 2008.

Not many had given India a chance to win the 2007 T20 WC after their dismal show in the ODI World Cup earlier that year. But MS Dhoni and his group comprising mostly young and inexperienced guys but a few experienced ones too defied all odds, and, importantly, beat Pakistan in a tight final, after thrashing Australia in the semi-final.

Virat Kohli’s ‘shot of an emperor’

If Shane Warne’s ball to Mike Gatting in the 1993 Ashes is hailed as the ‘Ball of the Century’, then there is a strong claim for Virat Kohli’s six down the ground to Haris Rauf – challenging the contortions of a human body and physics, under extreme pressure of an India-Pakistan game on the line; not least in front of a packed MCG crowd – to go down as the ‘Shot of the Century’.

It was an unforgettable shot, especially in that situation – that moment is now famously known as the 18.5 six – and will go down as one of the most unbelievable, unforgettable moments in cricketing annals.

Watch that sixer here:

Dhoni to Kohli – ‘you finish it’

By the 2014 T20 World Cup, Virat Kohli had attained the contention of the best T20 batter in the world, which only further accentuated in the coming T20 World Cups. He was on song in the 2014 T20 World Cup semi-final, notching up a cracking half-century against a quality South African attack, taking India over the line in yet another run-chase.

With only 1 run required off 7 balls, captain MS Dhoni was on strike. But instead of finishing off the chase, as he’s done on so many occasions, Dhoni acknowledged that it was Kohli’s moment, and just played a dot ball with the most defensive shot you will see in T20 cricket on the last ball of a 19th over.

Dhoni smiled to Kohli at the non-striker’s and gestured that it was Kohli’s right to finish the game, which he duly did on the first ball of the next over.

This is a moment which many fans still talk about whenever discussing the type of human being and a teammate and captain MS Dhoni is.

Watch that moment here: