Johannesburg, September 24:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s young Team India snatched the inaugural Twenty20 World title after defeating arch-rivals Pakistan by five runs in a rousing final.

The Indians, restricted to 157-5, fought back to bowl out valiant Pakistan for 152 at the Wanderers here. Pakistan appeared out for the count when they were reduced to 104-7 after 16 overs, but Misbah-ul Haq gave the Indians a scare with a late charge of 43 off 38 balls.

Misbah and his tail-end partners took 19 runs in the 18th over bowled by Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and seven runs in the 19th from Rudra Pratap Singh, leaving 13 to get off the final over. Seamer Joginder Sharma bowled a wide off the first ball and was hammered for a six by Misbah with the second legitimate ball, but gave India victory with his next ball as the batsman holed out to fine-leg.

Rudra Pratap and Irfan Pathan claimed three wickets each as Pakistan’s jinx of never having beaten India in a World Cup or world championship match continued. India take home the winner’s purse of $490,000 while Pakistan received no prize money for their efforts in the final.

India’s innings was restricted by seamer Umar Gul who scalped three prize wickets of Yuvraj Singh, Dhoni and top-scorer Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir slammed 75 off 54 balls, studded with eight boundaries and two sixes, but none of the other batsmen settled in. The best partnership in the innings was between Gambhir and Yuvraj, who put on 63 for the third wicket.

Pakistan’s chase of the victory target of eight runs an over was launched by Imran Nazir who smashed 33 off 14 balls. But Pakistan lost three wickets by the sixth over as Rudra Pratap dismissed Mohammad Hafeez and Kamran Akmal in his first two overs and Nazir was run out by a direct throw from Robin Uthappa.

Pakistan took the total to 65-3 in the ninth over when three further wickets fell for 12 runs, two in one over from Irfan Pathan. India was without aggressive opener Virender Sehwaq who was ruled out of the match with a thigh strain sustained during Saturday’s semi-final against Australia. Yousuf Pathan, elder brother of Irfan who replaced Sehwag, made a dramatic start to his international career after being sent in to open the batting.