Pakistan are ICC T20 World Champions

South Africa remained unbeaten but lost in the semifinals. Sri Lanka remained unbeaten and lost in the finals. And, Pakistan struggled from the word go and became the ICC T20 World Champions beating Sri Lanka by 8 wickets on June 21, 2009 at Lords.

CJ: Chinmay Chakravarty

Mon, Jun 22, 2009 10:25:37 IST

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ICC T20 World Cup :

NO ONE could have said which team would go on to win the T20 World Cup. South Africa remained unbeaten throughout the Championship but lost in the semi-finals. Sri Lanka did not lose a single game in the championship but eventually lost in the final. But the Pakistan team struggled from the word go and ended up becoming the ICC T20 world champions beating Sri Lanka by 8 wickets on June 21, 2009 at Lords, England. Placed in the same group as England and Netherlands, Pakistan first lost to England in the opening match and skipper Younus Khan was scathingly criticized for his laid-back remark of Twenty20 cricket being ‘fun cricket’. Either the criticism or his own outlook worked wonders and there was no turning back.

Shahid Afridi, the one key all-rounder for Pakistan who had been in indifferent form, clicked at the right time in both the bowling and batting departments along with Umer Gul who began to bowl brilliantly. Old warhorse Abdul Razzak was recalled to join the team and he flourished with his all-round abilities. Inspired by Younus Khan’s positive and almost ardent body language, Pakistan qualified for Super 8 as Group B toppers by beating giant killer Netherlands convincingly. At the Super 8 stage Pakistan struggled again losing to Sri Lanka, but then came back strongly to beat New Zealand and Ireland to storm into the semifinals. In the first semifinal on June 18, 2009 Pakistan teamed up perfectly to edge past the hot favorites and so-far unbeaten South Africa by 7 runs.

At the mega final at Lords on June 21, 2009 Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat. With an intense bowling attack, a target of around 150 runs seemed to be enough for Sri Lanka. But inspired Pak bowling reduced Sri Lanka to 76 for 6 at one stage. Skipper Sangakara’s unbeaten 64 helped Sri Lanka set a target of 139 runs which was considered to be a competitive score. Opener Kamran Akmal’s aggressive 37 and Afridi’s unbeaten 54 helped Pakistan overhaul the target in 18.3 overs with 8 wickets standing. And Pakistan, the runners-up in the T20 World Cup 2007 against India, created history by becoming the new T20 world champions.

For a country ravaged by terror and traumatized by the Taliban and deprived of cricket since the Lahore terror attack on the visiting Sri Lankan team in March 2009, this hard-earned cricket victory would definitely cheer up the people there. This historic victory would definitely pump them up with patriotic vigour to put up a brave front against the real challenges.

And, Team India too could learn a precious lesson or two from Pakistan’s exemplary team efforts and positive body language.

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