Slow Starters:

Pakistan is notoriously for starting slowly. “Everybody knows that we are slow starters,” said Pakistan's captain Younus Khan – one of the few batsmen to have hit a triple century in Test cricket. But Khan developed into a fine exponent of the shorter form of the game. He led from the front, delivering valuable runs and taking pressure of his team-mates when they played badly. He described Twenty20 as 'fun cricket.' But this is serious now.

They played a warm-up match against India at the Oval for charity, just before the tournament started. They lost badly, but it didn't matter too much to team manager Intikhab Alam. “I’m not really concerned,”he said then. “It’s early days and I’m sure they will come good at the right time. It doesn’t really mater. We have to do well at the right time. What I want from the boys is that we perform well when the time comes. I have faith in our bowlers; we have enough talent in our bowling to get things right. Things can go wrong, but our job is to make sure that it doesn’t go on and on, when the right time comes.”

Steady Improvement:

It continued with a bad defeat against England, but Pakistan achieved what England couldn't, beating the Netherlands. They lost their first match in the Super-Eights against Sri Lanka, but there were already signs of improvement. It was the closest match that the Lankans had throughout the tournament. And Pakistan improved. They thrashed New Zealand, admittedly, carrying injuries with the best ever bowling return in men's Twenty20 cricket by Umer Gul.

And then they set the record straight by beating William Porterfield's plucky Irish side – the nation that had ended Bob Woolmer's career with an unexpected defeat in the longer World Cup in the Caribbean in 2007. Revenge was sweet, but it was more than just an opportunity to set the record straight; it offered a route into the semi-finals. England was out, but to reach their second Twenty20 final – a feat that was beyond the abilities of Mahendra Singh Dhoni's defending champions – Pakistan had to get past the unbeaten tournament favourites, Graeme Smith's South Africa. They did so by just seven runs at Trent Bridge to reach the final

The Last Laugh:

Throughout the tournament people under-estimated Khan and his team. Their fielding was the butt [pun intended] of numerous jokes. Khan highlighted it, but as with the team's general play that improved, although once Salman Butt's form with the bat waned his place in the team was lost to youngster Shahzaib Hasan, as his fielding was below par.

“I dream about lifting the World Cup,” Younus Khan said yesterday. “It’s a big, big achievement for me. We have only one World Cup in 92, so all are talking about that and dreaming about that. It will be very good for me and it will be an achievement for my team. If we win it will be very fantastic, especially in my whole career.”

Khan was accused of disrespecting the tournament, not taking it seriously, but he can enjoy the satisfaction of having the last laugh. “A lot of people take wrongly [his now notorious fun comment]'” said Khan. “It’s good entertainment and nobody knows what will happen next. I take it seriously, especially in my whole career, I take my cricket very seriously. There are no controversies in my life and I take it seriously. Everybody loves Twenty20 these days, so I think it’s serious. Now I think it’s serious cricket.”