This is the second installment in our T20 World Cup rewind series as we prepare for the upcoming event in USA & West Indies by revisiting the previous editions and the teams who were crowned champions.
In the last article we covered India’s triumph in the first T20 World Cup in South Africa and now we move to the 2009 edition which saw the mercurial Pakistan side clinch the World Cup in England. Let’s dive in.
Group Stage:
Lingering from the pain of the 2007 T20 World Cup final loss, Pakistan made their way to England under the captaincy of Younis Khan. The team didn’t have the ideal build up to the tournament, losing a one-off T20 to Bangladesh and to Sri Lanka in a T20 Canada tournament.
Pakistan joined hosts England and The Netherlands in Group B. After the Dutch stunned England in the first game, the hosts were eager to comeback and they did against Pakistan. In Pakistan’s first game they put England to bat first after winning the toss.
Kevin Pietersen’s 58 off 38 balls and Luke Wright’s 34 off 16 propelled England to a daunting 185/5 in 20 overs. Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal were the pick of the bowlers but still the target was a stiff one and so it proved to be.
Pakistan never got going and despite an unbeaten 46 from the captain, the team collapsed and fell well short of the target scoring only 137/7 in 20 overs. This meant Pakistan’s next game against the dangerous Dutch side was a must win. In fact, they had to win and win convincingly.
Batting first, the Men in Green scored 175 runs led by Kamran Akmal’s 41, and cameos by Younis Khan and Misbah scoring 36 and 31, respectively. When it came to bowling they ripped through the Netherlands. A young Mohammad Amir set the tone and then Shahid Afridi showed his bowling prowess picking up 4 wickets as Pakistan went through on NRR.
Super-8:
Super 8 stage saw Pakistan clubbed with Ireland, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. The first game saw them suffer a defeat at the hands of their Asian rivals. Lanka scored 150/7 in their 20 overs, while a poor batting performance from Pakistan saw them lose by 19 runs.
Coming into the next game, they had their backs against the wall and this is when they are their most dangerous. “Cornered Tigers”, Pakistan bamboozled New Zealand for just 99 runs before comfortably chasing down in 13.1 overs.
A convincing 39-run victory over Ireland followed at the Oval as Pakistan booked a place in the semi finals.
Semi-Finals
In the semis, an unbeaten South Africa lay in wait. The Proteas had won all of their games and were favorities to progress, but that day they ran into a tenacious Pakistan side and more tellingly a determined Shahid Afridi.
Coming to bat first Pakistan posted 149/4 on the card, with Afridi leading the way scoring 51 off 34 balls. And during the chase when South Africa were looking comfortable with 46/1, Afridi struck twice in his two overs getting rid of Herschelle Gibbs and AB de Villiers. The Proteas took the match deep into the last over, but Pakistan prevailed by 7 runs.
Final:
The final saw Pakistan take on the same team that had left them on the brink in the Super 8 stage, Sri Lanka. The unpredictable nature of Pakistan meant, Lanka were slight favorities and had Tillakaratne Dilshan in inspiring form.
At Lord’s Sri Lanka opted to bat first. It was the hot in-form Dilshan against the upstart Mohammad Amir in the first over. The way Amir planned and eventually dismissed Dilshan on the fifth ball of the first over for a duck set the tone for the rest of the match.
Sri Lanka were down to 26/3 in four overs but captain Kumar Sangakkara kept fighting and scored an impressive 50. But this time Pakistan conjured up a hero in Abdul Razzaq who got the key wicket of Mahela Jayawardene for 1 run and picked 3 wickets in the innings.
Sangakkara remained not out on 64 but other batters failed to fire and Angelo Matthews’ 35 helped them post 138/6.
Sri Lanka needed early wickets, but Kamran Akmal’s flying start denied them. He scored a quick fire 37 before being dismissed and when Shahzaib Hassan got out to leave them at 63/2, Sri Lanka had a sniff. But once again it was Shahid Afridi who buried any hopes of a Sri Lanka comeback.
Afridi scored another 50 and ended up not out on 54 and hit the winning runs. Shoaib Malik, who suffered defeat as captain in 2007 was there to see off the match. Pakistan had won their first world title since the heady days of 1992 under Imran Khan.
Sherjeel Malik is the editor at FanHaat with a writing experience in multiple sports. He oversees the editorial and content coverage at FanHaat and writes often around combat sports, football and other marquee sports. A professional highlight of his career was when WWE’s Paul Heyman shared one of his articles on his social media.
Apart from writing, editing and watching sports, he likes to indulge in reading fiction, watching war documentaries and is a fan of Liverpool FC
