Well after their triumph in the T20 world cup finals on Sunday, most all of the Pakistani cricket fans would have rejoiced their team's victory by getting crazy. Of course..who on earth would not like to do so when something major has happened unexpectedly for Pakistan after 17 long years. After winning the world cup in 1992 that was held in Australia/New Zealand, Pakistan have just managed to enter the finals of two major ICC sponsored events when they were lucky to make it to the finals of the world cup in 1999 and then they entered the finals of the inaugural T20 world cup in 2007.
If anyone gives me an opportunity to have a say, I'd rather say that this is Pakistan's first ever major cricket title sponsored by the ICC. The 1992 world cup was just a fluke. Oh! C'mon..let us just go back to the league stages of the Benson & Hedges world cup 1992 where Pakistan had losses against arch rivals India, South Africa and West Indies. Pakistan until then had wins only against Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Of course not to mention the win against Zimbabwe. The match against England was a virtual knock out between Pakistan and Australia. Victory for England meant that Pakistan gets knocked out and Australia advance to the semis.
And much to one's surprise, Pakistan were bowled out for a paltry score of 74 which would have sealed Pakistan's fortunes. But, it was rain that came to Pakistan's rescue that day. And the rest that followed is well in front of our eyes. Anyway, that was a better result for, had Pakistan lost to England, the 2007 world cup win for Australia would have been their fifth world cup and 6 world cup finals in succession. And in 1999, Pakistan won matches against West Indies and Australia in a close finish only to lose to South Africa and India in the super six stage. It was the victory in league stage that helped Pakistan enter the semis. Pakistan had to win just 1 match to advance further to the semis and there was Zimbabwe to that came to their rescue.
Now, this victory is bound to remove the fluke tag from Pakistan. Pakistan beat two teams in Sri Lanka and South Africa who were unbeaten until then in the tournament. May be that, had some other team like say Australia had made it to the super 8 stage in place of Ireland, Pakistan would have had problems after their loss to Sri Lanka. But, that luck could be overpowered by their semi final win against the Proteas. However, their days of glory are numbered. They can enjoy being the T20 champions only until next April when another world T20 championship kicks off in the Caribbean. Meaning Pakistan can remain as T20 champions for only 10 months unless they win the next competition as well. And in the mean time we have the ICC Champions Trophy in September and incase Pakistan loses, that will surely overshadow their T20 win.
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