The season finale of Dinesh Karthik: The Re-inventor

Dinesh Karthik The season finale was the star of India’s first T20 match against South Africa in 2006. However, when the two teams meet again, the format and the man have changed dramatically.

“When I went in, I just wanted to play out all the overs because my captain wanted,” Dinesh Karthik said after the game.

The season finale had just assisted India in winning their first T20I against South Africa. In nine months, the hosts had already played three T20Is before hosting the first T20 World Cup. That was a large number back then. Only Australia had four games. After that, England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the West Indies, Bangladesh, and even Zimbabwe debuted in the format.

The 2 teams would meet again in a T20 series 16 years later. The format had changed, also so had Karthik. To understand the transformation, go back to December 2006, when Karthik faced a mini-crisis in India’s first T20 International. It was a one-off T20I during a lengthy tour that included five ODIs, three Tests, also three tour games. The newly format match was so important that it was sandwiched between the fourth and fifth ODIs.

South Africa scored 126/9 while batting first at Johannesburg’s New Wanderers Stadium. India was three down at 71 almost halfway through the chase, having lost captain Virender (34 off 29), Sachin Tendulkar (10 off 12), also MS Dhoni (0 of 2).

A batting lineup will be sweating in 2022 if they need 56 off 53 with seven wickets in hand. However, this was India’s first exposure to the format in 2006. Mongia, also Karthik’s namesake, had scored 18 off 25 balls and managed only 13 more runs in his next 20 deliveries before being dismissed, with India still needing 19 off 15.