Pakistan Win ICC Twenty20 Championship 2009

The spirit of cricket was alive and well at Lord's on Sunday. The "People's Final" was getting underway, and the finalists had more than realized their countries' dreams by making it so far. Cricket as a unifying force was evidently at work, as could be evidenced by the mixed crowds and also the online cheerleading. #PakCricket had many cross-border followers, although Sri Lanka was the team to beat.

Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat. Their innings was just about getting underway when star player Dilshan was caught by Shahzaib Hasan off Mohammed Aamer in the first over. Even more stunningly, Jehan Mubarak was caught off Abdul Razzaq in the second over. Sri Lanka were 8 for 2 at the end of the over, and the crowd was going wild. Jayasuriya and Sangakkara started to get the score going, but Jayasuriya was bowled at 17 by Razzaq in the fourth over, followed by Jayawardene in the 6th. Pakistan looked to have the game well in hand by now. Sri Lanka found its steadying anchor in Kumar Sangakkara, who batted on through the innings, finishing off unbeaten at 64 off 62 balls, and pushing Sri Lanka to 138/6.

Kamran Akmal and Shahzaib Hasan opened the batting for Pakistan. They got the innings off to a quick start, taking Pakistan to 48/0 after 7 overs, two sixes from Akmal. He fell in the first ball of the 7th over from Jayasuriya's first delivery. Hasan went in the 9th over, caught by Jayasuriya off Muralitharan. Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik took up the charge, taking Pakistan to 103 in the 15th over, with 36 runs required off 30 balls and eight wickets to spare. The batting seemed to pause for a while, until Afridi took the blinkers off and knocked two massive sixes in the 18th over. Pakistan needed 7 off 12 balls to win the ICC Twenty20 Championship 2009.

They wrapped up the match in the 19th over, the winning run was a leg bye past Shahid Afridi, who had a 76 run partnership with Shoaib Malik. The entire team got on their knees in the middle of the field and did a victory lap. A comfortable performance under pressure and one that was sure to build up their spirit.