SK Flashback: Shahid Afridi inspires Pakistan to their maiden World T20 title

The second edition of the ICC World T20 was staged in England in 2009 with 12 participating teams competing against each other for the title. After India won the inaugural edition of the T20 event in 2007, the cricketing world anticipated a spectacular follow-up to the erstwhile edition.

The tournament turned out to be an enthralling one as Pakistan bagged their maiden World T20 title by thrashing Sri Lanka in the final in front of a packed stadium at Lord’s. Though the game panned out to be one-sided, it didn’t lack in entertainment.

On a decent batting wicket in London, Sri Lanka and Kumar Sangakkara won the toss, elected to bat first and put runs on the board. After losing the toss, Younis Khan looked pretty confident and mentioned that it wasn’t an issue as they preferred chasing a target down.

The early stutter

Sri Lanka got off to the worst possible start as they lost a couple of early wickets courtesy of some rash strokes by Tillakaratne Dilshan and Jehan Mubarak. Mohammad Amir struck first blood for Pakistan by snapping Dilshan and then in the following over, Mubarak perished to a mistimed flick over mid-wicket off Abdul Razzaq to leave the Lankans at 2-2 after 1.3 overs.

Sanath Jayasuriya was beginning to look ominous, but Razzaq cleaned him up through an inside-edge on to the off-stump. Sri Lanka’s misery continued as they lost Mahela Jayawardena cheaply. In the process, Razzaq picked up his third wicket.

At the end of the 13th over, Sri Lanka were in all sorts of trouble with wickets falling at the rate of knots. After 13 overs, Sri Lanka were staring down the barrel with the score at 70 with just four wickets remaining. The only hope was that they had their last recognised batting pair in Angelo Matthews and Kumar Sangakkara at the crease.

A comeback of sorts

Kumar Sangakkara played a lone hand with 64 runs from 52 balls

While from Pakistan’s point of view, they required one wicket to get into the Sri Lankan tail, the Lankans needed some sort of a partnership to help their team post a competitive total for their bowlers to defend.

The last seven overs of the innings showered mercy on Sri Lanka as the partnership between Sangakkara and Matthews blossomed to propel the total to 138/6 at the end of 20 overs. Sangakkara showed composure at the crease as he kept a calm head to score 64 runs from 52 balls.

The quick-fire cameo of 35 runs from 24 balls from Mathews provided the much needed impetus to the innings which gave some sort of respectability to the eventual total. Albeit, the target wasn’t a hefty one for Pakistan to chase down, there was always a chance considering it was a final.

Pakistan’s clinical batting display

Shahid Afridi played a matured hand of 54 runs to guide Pakistan to victory

Pakistan didn’t throw the kitchen sink from the word go, but got the scoreboard ticking with singles, doubles and odd boundaries in between. Kamran Akmal and Shahzaib Hasan demonstrated a tranquil temperament as they didn’t panic in the initial phase of the innings.

The stand garnered 48 runs in 43 balls, which well and truly put Pakistan in the driver’s seat. With two sixes and two fours in his knock of 37 from 28 balls, Kamran Akmal was the aggressor in the partnership, but played one shot too many to get stumped by Sangakkara off Jayasuriya’s left arm spin.

Two overs later, Hasan went for a slog sweep off Muttiah Muralitharan, which went to Jayasuriya’s safe hands at short-fine leg. With 76 runs required from the last 65 deliveries Sri Lanka were desperate for a couple of more wickets.

The onus was now on Shoaib Malik and Pakistan’s most experienced player in the team in the form of the swashbuckling Shahid Afridi. Both of them carted the Lankan bowlers across the entire circumference of the ground and diminished their chances of a comeback.

The partnership of 76 runs off 57 balls was enough to beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets as the green brigade lifted their first World T20 title. Shahid Afridi, after playing an uncharacteristically slow innings of 54 runs from 40 balls, was declared the Man of the Match.

Nevertheless, it was heartening to see the Sri Lankan team fighting their heart out till the very end. Though Lasith Malinga was unable to churn out wickets, his spell of 3.4 overs and 14 runs showed that the Pakistanis didn’t find it easy against the quick bowler.

It has been eight years since Pakistan’s historic triumph and the memories of their jaw-dropping cricket are still afresh. Pakistan cricket has struggled to find the consistency but after being crowned the winners of the 2017 Champions Trophy, a bright future awaits them in international cricket.