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India clinch T20 World Cup crown

Team India celebrates with the trophy after winning the ICC men's Twenty20 World Cup 2024 final

CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP


India won a thrilling final against South Africa by seven runs in Barbados on Saturday to clinch their first major title since the 2013 Champions Trophy.

Fans in blue India jerseys shed tears of joy and danced on tabletops at a sports bar in New Delhi as Rohit Sharma's team ended a global title drought.

They last won a World Cup in 2011 at home under M.S. Dhoni, who earlier led the team to a T20 World Cup trophy in the inaugural edition in 2007.

Star batsman Virat Kohli scored 76 from 59 balls to guide India to 176-7, a total their bowlers defended by restricting the Proteas to 169-8.

Both Kohli and Sharma said they had played their last Twenty20 international.

South Africa captain Aiden Markram said he was "gutted" after his team lost their first-ever T20 World Cup final.

Having ended a run of seven semi-final losses -- in both short-form formats -- with their victory over Afghanistan on Thursday, the Proteas came agonisingly close to their maiden World Cup title.

Heinrich Klaasen's blistering 52 from 27 balls, with five sixes and two fours, put South Africa in a position to win before India's 'death' bowlers turned on the screws.

South Africa's only major honour in the game is the Champions Trophy title won in 1998 and Markram said it was too soon to reflect deeply on the positives of the campaign.