Barbados - India won T20 World Cup in a nail-biting final against South Africa by 7 runs. 

India, after winning the toss at Barbados' Kensington Oval on 29 June while playing the ICC Men's T20 World Cup final against South Africa, India scored 176/7 runs and posted a target of 177 runs for South Africa to chase. With this, India registered the highest ever total in a T20 world cup final. 

Virat Kohli led the innings with a resilient 76 off 59 balls after India faced early setbacks at 34 for 3 in the fifth over. A crucial 72-run partnership between Kohli and Axar Patel, who scored 47 off 31, helped India recover to 176 for 7 in their 20 overs. Keshav Maharaj and Anrich Nortje each took two wickets for South Africa.

In response, South Africa was restricted to 169 for 8, giving India a narrow 7-run victory and their first T20 World Cup win in 17 years.

For India, Virat Kohli scored a whopping 76 off 59 runs, while Axar Patel (47) and Shivam Dube (27) contributed some important runs. Virat Kohli registered the highest individual score for India in a T20 World Cup final.

The winners will take home the trophy along with almost $2.45 million, the highest-ever prize money in the tournament's history, according to the ICC. The runners-up, meanwhile, will receive $1.28 million.

The final was played on pitch No. 4, which was used for the games between Namibia and Oman, and Scotland and England. It's the fourth pitch of eight on the square, so neither boundary should be significantly longer than the other.

India arrived in the final with seven wins from eight games (one rained out) and in almost all of them, they've been dominant. The only time they were really challenged was three weeks ago, on a treacherous New York pitch after posting 119 against Pakistan. 

South Africa made it to the finals with eight wins from eight and they've gone through the ringer. Except each time, with the game on the line, and the pressure at a peak, they coped. Given all this context, it is unlikely that either team will be making any changes (unless South Africa decide the conditions warrant an extra seamer).

The India squad included Rohit Sharma (captain), Suryakumar Yadav, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal

The South Africa squad includes Aiden Markram (captain), David Miller, Reeza Hendricks, Tristan Stubbs, Keshav Maharaj, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Quinton de Kock, Ryan Rickelton, Anrich Nortje, Bjorn Fortuin, Gerald Coetzee, Kagiso Rabada, Ottneil Baartman, Tabraiz Shamsi

A nearly month-long cricket extravaganza that began in the United States with 20 teams drew the finish line with the finals today, Saturday in West Indies.

India and South Africa had their face-off at the Kensington Oval in Barbados Saturday.

Both teams had won all matches they have played in this edition. India has previously won the T20 World Cup once, during the inaugural edition in 2007. On the other hand, this is the first time that South Africa has made it to the final stage.

"We feel and we believe that we can compete with the best in the world, and we can win trophies," South Africa captain Aiden Markham had said after the team's win against Afghanistan. "And it's nice for us to now have that opportunity."

• This is only the seventh T20 World Cup match between India and South Africa. The first four squeeze into a five-year time-frame between 2007 and 2012.

• Never has this tournament yielded a champion who has remained unbeaten.

• There wasn't a lot to separate India and South Africa on bowling metrics: 56 wickets at an average of 15.21 and economy rate of 6.42 vs 59 wickets at an average of 15.23 and economy rate of 5.95

• But the batting is a different story. India average 25.80 and strike at 132.13 with six fifty-plus scores. South Africa average 21.90 and strike at 106.14 with three fifty-plus scores