Pakistan cricket came alive at Lord’s on Sunday evening in all its unpredictable glory and unrefined exquisiteness. They had come into this tournament burdened by troubles at home and blighted by lack of match practice. They had started their campaign playing as though in shackles, they finished it with a chest-thumping freedom that would’ve seemed more appropriate in the frenzied, drunken stands.

The evening that began with what must be one of the most intimidating overs in Twenty20 history, ended in a flurry of fours and sixes from Shahid Afridi’s free-spirited blade. In the three-and-a-half hours in between, there were only a few moments when Pakistan flirted with the uncertainty that so typifies their cricket.

And at the end, they had trumped a Sri Lankan team that had been clinical and unbeaten through the tournament by eight wickets — a margin of victory that indicated the difference between the teams on the day.

Captain Younis Khan, draped in a Pakistan flag, spoke emotionally at the post-match press conference. He dedicated the win to former coach Bob Woolmer, who died when with the team for the World Cup in the Caribbean. “I wish he was sitting here next to me.”

Younis, who also announced his retirement from Twenty20 cricket, spoke too of how much this win would mean to his people back home. “It is our gift to the people of Pakistan,” he said. At the end of the game, the streets of London had exploded in deliriously happy green; imagine then, the streets of Karachi or Lahore.

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