BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) — Barely an hour after guiding India to an exhilarating seven-run victory over South Africa within the Twenty20 World Cup closing, Rohit Sharma joined fellow star batter Virat Kohli in saying his retirement from worldwide T20 matches.

“This was my final sport as properly,” Sharma stated on the press convention after Saturday’s closing which broke a 13-year lengthy drought for India at main tournaments. “No higher time to say goodbye to this format.”

Sharma, 37, is the format’s highest scorer with 4231 runs in 159 matches for India, with 5 centuries. Saturday’s breakthrough win was his second T20 World Cup success after successful the inaugural match in 2007.

He has performed in each T20 World Cup match since, with solely Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan doing likewise.

“I’ve beloved each second of this. I began my India profession taking part in this format,” Sharma stated. “That is what I wished, I wished to win the cup and say thanks.”

Whereas Kohli struggled for type for almost all of the match earlier than his man of the match innings of 76 off 59 balls within the closing, Sharma completed because the second highest run-scorer with 257 runs at a strike charge of over 156, together with game-turning half-centuries in opposition to Australia within the Tremendous Eight and England within the semifinal.

Sharma stated he would proceed to be obtainable to play checks and one-day internationals for India.

India’s final main match success was on the ODI World Cup it hosted in 2011. Since then they’ve endured numerous painful close to misses, with essentially the most grueling being the 50-over closing on house soil in Ahmedabad to Australia in November.

In addition they misplaced the World Check Championship closing to the identical opponent at The Oval final summer season.

“It was very emotional, I wished this badly,” Sharma stated. “I used to be very determined for this in my life so I’m blissful we crossed the road this time.”

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket