“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
This is how Leo Tolstoy opens up his classic novel Anna Karenina, published in 1878.
That is also one way to look at the final of the ICC Twenty20 World Cup, in 2021.
The two teams that reached the final got there by identical margins, chasing down challenging totals with an over to spare when all hope seemed to be extinguished at some point in their quest.
The teams who lost, however, lost very differently.
England stacked their team with batsmen, left themselves vulnerable when it came to death bowling, relied heavily on analytics and match-ups, allowing New Zealand to take the game deep and finish it off.
Pakistan had the bowling resources to do the job at the business end, deployed them sub-optimally, holding back Shaheen Shah Afridi till the 19th over when victory was in sniffing distance, allowing Australia’s batsmen to take him on. Had he bowled the 18th over instead, when 37 were still needed from three overs, one tight over from him — after his stunning opening act — could have pushed Australia to the brink of desperation.
Sure, there was the let down of Hasan Ali’s dropped catch off Matthew Wade, who ended up clouting three sixes to finish the game, but at the other end was Marcus Stoinis, growing in confidence and playing largely chanceless cricket.
The fact of the matter was that Pakistan had set the game up nearly perfectly in the first half.
Their template is based on Babar Azam, one of the classiest batsmen in the game across formats, teaming up with Mohammad Rizwan, who has become something of a beast in white-ball batting.
They start slowly, but the whole point of their approach is ensuring that a platform is built, allowing others to make the most of it when the opportunity presents itself.
On the day it was no different. Except, almost no-one knew that Rizwan was coming into the final off a two-day stay in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital for severe chest congestion. That he even took the field was an act of bravery.
At the top of the order, he was his usual belligerent self, and the manner in which he picks up deliveries from fast bowlers on the off stump and whips them over square-leg for six are as much a work of art as Azam’s immortalised cover drives.
Rizwan’s bravery — and this is real, not the imagined cricket kind — ensured he got 67 from 52.
But, in knock out matches of global tournaments it is Fakhar Zaman who comes into his own.
Zaman’s left-hand approach to hitting is so unconventional that it is difficult for teams to set fields to him. And, when he engages his fast hands, the bat speed he generates ensures that hits that may just go past the infield end up screaming over the ropes.
Zaman’s 32-ball 55 powered Pakistan to 176, a score that eventually proved to be not enough, but it was only the latest example of him rising to a big occasion.
In the semifinal of the 2017 Champions Trophy he made 57 in a match where Pakistan chased down 212 to beat England.
In the final of the same tournament, Zaman cracked a pitch-perfect 114 that got Pakistan to 338 for 4, a score in front of which India crashed and burned to 158 all out.
If Zaman proved once again that he was a big match player, Shadab Khan, bowling legspin in the rich Pakistani tradition but doing so with originality, proved to be another major force.
In Twenty20 cricket you have four overs to bowl, or 24 events, as R Ashwin put it recently.
There is no room for looseners and no margin for any kind of bowler. In the longer formats teams will endure the leggie who occasionally sends down a long hop or tosses one up that does not dip as expected.
Shadab was plainly brilliant in his four-over spell. Not only did he build pressure — largely by not bowling a single loose ball but also by bowling perfectly to his field — Shadab produced a wicket-taking ball each over.
In his first over Shadab had Mitch Marsh caught on the slog sweep; in his second, Steve Smith played a similar shot and suffered the same fate; in his third David Warner, who was taking the game away, drove hard at and missed a ball but heard a sound of some sort and departed without reviewing, believing he was caught behind; finally, in his fourth over, Glenn Maxwell played a premeditated switch hit and was caught out by the extra bounce.
Shadab had 4 for 26 from his 24 events, an economy rate of 6.5 in an innings where the opposition ended up scoring at nearly 8 an over.
Coming into the knockouts unbeaten, playing a brand of cricket that was always entertaining, it is tempting to say that Pakistan did not deserve to lose to a team that was struggling not long ago. But, life teaches us that we don’t always get what we deserve, or deserve what we get.
For Rizwan, Zaman and Shadab, this experience should be a learning: remember the tournament, remember what you achieved without letting one loss define how you judge yourself.
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