In Group D, after initial games against Scotland, rivals India and Pakistan met at Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban, South Africa. After India got to 141 for 9 in their twenty overs, a Misbah-ul-Haq run-out on the last ball of the game saw the match head into a bowl-out which India won 3–0 with Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Robin Uthappa scoring for India. In the Super 8s, India lost to New Zealand by 10 runs. India then defeated England and host South Africa by 18 and 37 runs. Meanwhile, Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by 33 runs. Pakistan also defeated Australia and chased Bangladesh to win by four wickets. The first semi-final was a tight contest between Pakistan and New Zealand, which Pakistan won by six wickets. India faced Australia in the second semi-final match, the lead alternating until India turned it around to win their spot in the final.
Team composition
The Indian team made one change from their semi-final against Australia: Yusuf Pathan went into the lineup to replace Virender Sehwag, who was unavailable for fitness issues. Pakistan also had one change with Fawad Alam being dropped as he was replaced by Yasir Arafat.
After winning the coin toss and electing to bat first, India lost their opening wicket in the third over when Yusuf Pathan mis-timed his shot to be caught by Shoaib Malik for 15. The next wicket to fall was Robin Uthappa, with another mis-timed shot ending his innings on eight. Settling down, Gautam Gambhir played his shots. On the other end, Yuvraj Singh was caught-out from a Umar Gul delivery to end the 63-run partnership. After MS Dhoni was bowled by Gul for 6, the innings slowed between over 14 to 18. Rohit Sharma made some late-order hitting which brought India to 157 for 5 in the twenty overs. For Pakistan, Gul was the best of the bowlers as he took three wickets while Asif and Sohail Tanvir each took a wicket. In the run chase, Pakistan lost Hafeez in the first over while Akmal was bowled by a in-swinger from R. P. Singh. After a twenty-one run-over from S. Sreesanth, Imran Nazir was run out Robin Uthappa on 31, which started a brief collapse with the wickets of Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik and Yasir Arafat putting Pakistan to 77 for 6. Misbah-ul-Haq remained strong at the other end with support from the tail-enders, and reached within thirteen runs of the target; however, he lost his wicket, with the gamble of going over short-fine leg ending in a Sreesanth catch. This resulted in India winning by five runs. The pick of the bowlers was Irfan Pathan and R. P. Singh, who each collected three wickets; Joginder Sharma and S. Sreesanth also got into the wickets with two and one, respectively.
Fall of wickets: 1–25, 2–40, 3–103, 4–111, 5–130 Did not bat: Harbhajan Singh, Joginder Sharma, S Sreesanth, R. P. Singh Fall of wickets: 1–2, 2–26, 3–53, 4–65, 5–76, 6–77, 7–104, 8–138, 9–141, 10–152
