The game marked the return of Abdul Razzaq to the international side and his breakthrough early in the New Zealand innings was vital in what was to follow and thus cannot be underestimated. He had a good day with the ball (2 for 17) although he didn’t get going with the bat; still not being able to play spinners the poor sod.

The star of the show was obviously Umar Gul with his record breaking figures of 5 for 6. It was the first time anyone has taken a 5-for in International Twenty20. Amazingly, he was on a hat-trick twice but never managed to convert either. In his interview after, he spoke of working on the yorkers and slower balls with coach Aqib Javed and said that he watched videos of Waqar and Wasim and boy did it show. Those figures will take some beating, and the fact that he is also number 3 and 7 on the Twenty20 best figures list, shows it wasn’t just luck.

Afridi was once again mesmeric with the ball and took, in our opinion, the best catch of the tournament so far.

Thankfully, the youngster Shahzaib Hasan was given another chance after his zero earlier in the tournament and he didn’t disappoint with his 35 of 28 balls. It was pleasing to see Afridi the batsmen smash 29 off 18; his performance clearly the result of a team feeling good after playing to their abilities.

Though we probably lost two wickets too many, it was more important that we got to the target quickly as possible as run rate will make the difference in what is a very close group now.

I hope the Pakistani players realise the happiness they bring to their people when they play like this. Even those not connected with Pakistan could not have felt anything but appreciation for the talent on display.

The highlight of the day for me was Sanjay Manjrekar who after witnessing the Pakistani performance said something along the lines of “this is why Pakistan needs to be playing international cricket”. Brilliant.

Next up, we lose to Ireland on Monday. Who’d be a Pakistan fan?