Flashback: 2009 T20 World Cup final
Pakistan suffered a big heartbreak in the final clash against India in the inaugural T20 World Cup tournament in 2007. Fans were always optimistic ahead of the next edition, the 2009 T20 World Cup in England, with most of the squad made up from the 2007’s setup. Sri Lanka put on impressive displays throughout the tournament and were tipped as favourites to win the final.
Pakistan suffered two group-stage defeats, one against Sri Lanka, but beat South Africa in the first semi-final clash by just seven runs to book a spot in the final at the famous Lord’s stadium in London. Sri Lanka won all five group-stage fixtures and beat West Indies in the second semi-final clash to set up a final clash against Pakistan.
Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara won the toss at Lord’s and elected to bat first but his decision proved very costly as star pacer Mohammad Amir dismissed Tillakaratne Dilshan for a duck, who was leading the scoring charts in the tournament with 317 runs. It got more worse for Sri Lanka when Abdul Razzaq removed Jehan Mubarak in the next over.
Sri Lanka also lost their star batters Sanath Jayasuriya and Mahela Jayawardene in the powerplay overs. Pakistani bowlers dominated middle overs with two more wickets and Sri Lanka were struggling 70/6 at the end of 13th over. But captain Sangakkara kept the scored unbeaten 64 runs off 52 balls and formed a crucial 68-run partnership for the seventh with Angelo Matthews who smashed 35* off 24 balls to guide Sri Lanka to a fighting 138/6. For Pakistan, Razzaq took three wickets while conceding only 20 runs from his three-over spell.
Pakistani openers Kamran Akmal and Shahzaib Hasan started steadily with a 47-run partnership to deny Sri Lanka an early comeback. Jayasuriya dismissed Akmal in the eighth over to give Sri Lanka an opening and legendary spinner Muthiah Muralitharan took Hasan’s wicket in the tenth over to rekindle some fightback.
But Shahid Afridi, playing in the number three position, smashed unbeaten 54 runs off 40 balls and Shoaib Malik scored 24 runs off 22 balls to guide Pakistan to an easy eight-wicket win with eight balls remaining. Shahid Afridi won the player of the match award for his 54* knock and 1/20 bowling spell while Dilshan won the player of the tournament for scoring 317 runs.
