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India's 2024 T20 World Cup title run is the stuff of legend.
Hardik Pandya has now revealed how Rohit Sharma and he plotted Heinrich Klaasen's dismissal in the T20 World Cup final to help India triumph on June 29, 2024.
Klaasen was going all guns blazing, taking down the spinners effortlessly.
He threatened to take the game away from India with South Africa requiring just 26 runs to win from 24 balls.
Pandya dismissed him on the first ball of the 17th over which helped India get back into the contest.
Recalling the dismissal, Pandya revealed his discussions with Rohit before bowling the wicket-taking delivery.
'Rohit Sharma and I have been playing together for so many years -- he knows what kind of personality I have and how much I have cricket awareness,' Hardik told the ICC Review.
'So just before the ball, I told him that I would bowl wide to Klassen and I knew he would expect the ball on the stumps -- his foot was slightly on the leg side, so I knew he would hit me there.
'I just looked at him just before the run-up and told myself that I would bowl a slower ball because we had not set the field that way.'
'I wanted to trick him, the way he was hitting the ball was brilliant and Klaasen's wicket, I think, opened the door for us.'
Klaasen was dismissed after a sensational 52 (27 balls, 2 4s, five 6s).
'I have always thrived in and enjoyed these high-pressure situations.
'When the ball went up in the air, it initially looked like it would land inside the 30 yard circle or that a fielder would have to run in. But then we saw the wind carrying it farther and farther, and it just kept going -- it didn't stop.
'And obviously, what Surya (Suryakumar Yadav) did in that moment, with such presence of mind and calmness, was sheer brilliance.
'We won as a team, but for me to play such a crucial role -- it feels surreal. It's a dream that actually came true.'