Pakistan Wins All-Asian T20 World Cup Final
By Gaurang
June 22 2009
Pakistan deservedly won the Second T20 World Cup defeating Sri Lanka in the final and making it the second time in a row that an Asian team has won the World Cup in this, the newest and most abbreviated version of cricket.
Pakistan peaked at the right moment, overcoming a poor start, which included a thrashing by hosts England, and a defeat to their opponents in the finals Sri Lanka along the way. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, peaked too soon, and were almost out of the game within half an hour of the start.
The man who started the slide with three key wickets was Abdul Razzaq. Razzaq had ironically been dropped from the Pakistan T20 squad for the previous World Cup, and had then decided to join the Indian Cricket League (ICL). Despite having only played ICL cricket for the past year and half, due the almost fanatical way the BCCI who started its own professional league the Indian Premiere League (IPL) tried to crush the rival ICL, banning any contact of ICL players with any ICC sanctioned cricket, Abdul Razzaq slotted right into the side, and was a key player. In fact, once he was picked for the team, it seemed to have a newfound balance, and surety that it was missing earlier.
The other big star for Pakistan was Shahid Afridi who in the early part of the Tournament struggled with the bat. But once he got going with the bat, and with his bowling already very effective, he presented a challenge that few other teams could overcome.
Another big factor was the leadership of Younis Khan. He was not the most articulate of guys behind a microphone, and at times almost seemed reluctant to lead, but his actions spoke louder than words, and none so than his announcement that he was retiring from T20 cricket, after leading his country to a World Cup, and his dedication of the Trophy to the ex-Pakistan coach, Bob Woolmer, whose unsolved death still haunts world cricket. His plea at the ceremony for other teams to start visiting Pakistan was impassioned but the fact remains that for the near-term future Pakistan remains a very unsafe place to visit. None would know this better than the team whom Younis’ defeated in the final, the Sri Lankans.
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He gave a choice to his captain to move Afridi at top order and gave 2 extra bat ( Abdul Razaq himself and Fawad Alam). In bowling, he has provided a spark, which was missing in Rao and Sohail Tanvir.
Without Abdul Razaq, Pakistan might would not make into semis.
ICC (and Pak) need to acknowledge their debt to ICL!
That's what usually happened in IPL2 and that's what has happened in T20WC.
Another conclusion is that well-rested international players do well at T20. Hence retired stars such as Gilchrist, Hayden and Kumble dominated IPL, while the well-rested Pakistanis (and especially well-rested Razzaq) could do well in England.
Must have something to do with the fact that you only need to spend a little bit of time on the field.
Also Anil, let's not forget that Pak made the final in the previous T20 WC. So they have been one of the best teams in this format. Probably their lack of recent cricket, and poor form in the longer formats, made a lot of people think of them as underdogs. And to be fair, their early performances were not that great. But once they got the combination right, Pak were on a roll.
Totally deserved victory. Congrats to the Pakistan team and fans.
India - World Cup winners 2011!!!
Champions Trophy winners 2013!!!
Congrats to Indian team and all Indian fans!
Afridi,Razzaq,Gul and younus were few of their stars.......
Enjoy your victory guys....
Quote:Max
Also Anil, let's not forget that Pak made the final in the previous T20 WC. So they have been one of the best teams in this format. Probably their lack of recent cricket, and poor form in the longer formats, made a lot of people think of them as underdogs. And to be fair, their early performances were not that great. But once they got the combination right, Pak were on a roll.
Max, they won the important matches so they deserved to win.
But in which international sport can you be "rusty", miss action for months or years, and then suddenly come in and do so well?
My point is that the likes of this Pak team, or Gilchrist/Hayden/Kumble could never do so well in a proven format such as Tests, or even ODIs, due to lack of competition at the top level.
This tells me there's something going on in T20 that isn't real sport. There's some factor of how rested you are, how little the work is, that allows rusty and old players to do well, and for underdog teams to win.