Was the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 Pakistan's best ever in terms of ICC tournament performances?

[street cricketer]

Even in the tournaments Pakistan has won before like the '92 world cup or the 2009 T20 WC or the CT win in '17, Pakistan had some defeats before winning the tournament.

But Pakistan is putting in a near flawless performance in this tournament beating all the sides on their way. So is this Pakistan's best ever ICC performance till date in its history?

 

[Shaddy86]

The 99 Worldcup was pretty good for Pakistan Apart from the loss to India and of course the Final. That was the team to fear, they were ruthless and a formidably side, much much better than this current side, on paper at least. If Pakistan had won that Final, it would have been their best tournament ever.

We haven't even played the semis here yet, so we can't say much about it. Let us win the damn thing first.

 

[sweep_shot]

In T20 format, it has been the best one without a doubt.

If you include ODI too, it is probably a tie between 1999 World Cup and this World T20.

 

[Itachi]

Certainly it's the best clinical performance in an ICC tournament by Pakistan.

 

[street cricketer]

Certainly it's the best clinical performance in an ICC tournament by Pakistan.

The fear with a flawless performance like this is that if the law of averages can strike at the wrong time.

Pakistan needs to be wary of it. But then again, it's the same for England as well who are flying very high too.

 

[ahmadharis1]

I mean there was that time we actually won the T20 world cup....

 

[msb314]

Even in the tournaments Pakistan has won before like the '92 world cup or the 2009 T20 WC or the CT win in '17, Pakistan had some defeats before winning the tournament.

But Pakistan is putting in a near flawless performance in this tournament beating all the sides on their way. So is this Pakistan's best ever ICC performance till date in its history?

The 99 Worldcup was pretty good for Pakistan Apart from the loss to India and of course the Final. That was the team to fear, they were ruthless and a formidably side, much much better than this current side, on paper at least. If Pakistan had won that Final, it would have been their best tournament ever.

We haven't even played the semis here yet, so we can't say much about it. Let us win the damn thing first.

In T20 format, it has been the best one without a doubt.

If you include ODI too, it is probably a tie between 1999 World Cup and this World T20.

Also 1987 World Cup. I believe we won our first 5 games before losing to West Indies

 

[krazystrong]

99 is overrated, we weren't as dominant as people act like we were. We lost to India, South Africa and Bangladesh.

 

[Itachi]

I mean there was that time we actually won the T20 world cup....

I don't see any team stopping Pakistan in this wc.

 

[Ozeirk]

Pakistan in the last 2 games haven't been great. Against Namibia our bowlers were taken to the cleaners and the batsmen struggled to score runs at the beginning of the innings.

We have our share of demons and England will be a test for us.

To top it all Shaheen hasn't done much since the first game against India. His focus seems to have gone as he is trying too many things now, anyone with a better head on their shoulders would have capitalized and taken a lot more wickets. Shadab also went for a lot of runs. However, I feel Hassan is learning from his bad patch and you can see in him a drive to do better. I also believe Imad will be crucial for us going forward.

 

[Sarwar89]

World Cup 1987 was going incredibly well, Pakistan winning 5 out of 6 matches in Group stage.

But few things went wrong in 87 semi final, jaffer’s last over went for 21 and Dickie bird’s wrong decision on imran changed the course of match.

Let’s hope pakistan do not have any bad day in SF/F.

As for 1999, losing to Bangladesh then Close game against South Africa where we got them to 60/4 in 20 overs chasing 220, handed the match to Klusener + pointless defeat against India chasing only 228.

We were actually struggling against Scotland in group stage, Yousuf saved us.

1999 is slightly over rated.

In 1992, Pakistan would have beaten South Africa easily, had duckworth lewis not interferred.

 

[cerebralrattlesnake]

has to be since we beat india for the first time ever

 

[angrypathan]

Only if we go on to win the tournament. Otherwise even with the early losses in 92, 09 and CT17, they were better performances because we actually won the tournaments

 

[MenInG]

All I can say is that this tournament caught the imagination of Pakistanis like nothing before!

 

[kukkad kamaal]

Amazing pictures

 

[Usman Chadda]

Can safely say this Pakistan team has brought back a lot of casual fans, who were tired of the team losing and had basically given up on them. Having spent a good part of the tournament in Pakistan, and the latter half during the UAE, the interest and passion has definitely risen even more so than the CT2017. Probably because its a T20, the public could spare more time to watch the games. The pain and frustration felt by casual fans is also something that I have seen after a long time, when before a loss would have been met by “haarti hi hai ye team toh, jeeti kab hai?”.

Sad to see it all end in tears, but the team has played well beyond our expectations.

 

[Cricketrenew]

This is the best most confident performances I have seen in a tournament and there was not much hit or miss play. This has been the best performance overall. 1999 was good but the Bangladesh game and not playing Afridi if I remember rightly meant the overall tactics were more based on luck and batting first all the time.

 

[Mesozoic]

Right from the 24th of October, it looked like 'Pakistan's tournament' where everything they touched turned into gold and as if they were destined to win the whole thing. Last time I felt something like that was India in the 2013 Champions Trophy where everything fell into the exact right place at the exact time.

Wade's 3 sixes were completely against the run of play.

 

[Civil]

I'll rate CT 17 just a bit higher for me because of the sheer randomness and improbability of that whole win.

Though after looking at above pictures and reading endless positive YT comments on the different analysis shows I think this captivated way more people.

Even fans of of opposing team wished us well in comments. So many saying "love from India", "love from an Aussie fan" etc..

Cricket is our only soft power it seems lol.

 

[Sirris]

It did pump up the hype machine since we won all the group matches. 5 out of 5. Which sounds impressive.

However, beating teams like Afghanistan, Namibia and Scotland isn’t such a impressive feat.

We also tend to defeat NZ in tournaments quite often.

Though the matches against NZ and Afghanistan ended up being thriller. In retrospect beating India was the only major accomplishment. Would have hoped we atleast went to the final.

CT17 and T20 2009 was still better for me.

On paper winning 5 out 5 matches is a clinical performance though!

 

[street cricketer]

For a while, I got the feeling cricket was losing its popularity in Pakistan.

Glad to see the passion returning to the fans which you always love to see. Cricket needs to be well and alive, particularly in all asian countries so that the heart of the game can keep beating. Hope something similar rejuvenates the game in Sri Lanka too.

 

[Sirris]

For a while, I got the feeling cricket was losing its popularity in Pakistan.

Glad to see the passion returning to the fans which you always love to see. Cricket needs to be well and alive, particularly in all asian countries so that the heart of the game can keep beating. Hope something similar rejuvenates the game in Sri Lanka too.

The team definitely has quite a few likeable characters (Rizwan, Baber, Afridi) and less unlikeable ones compared to the team from couple of years ago.

 

[Manzy2599]

Pakistan was brilliant this tournament and it was exactly what they needed after the unfortunate cancellations of the NZ and England tours. Teams are actually lining up to play in Pakistan which is great. NZ is rescheduling their tour, England is playing 2 extra T20s and Australia is coming back to pak after 22 years which is great news.

In this World Cup they showed that they are still one of the major cricket teams in the world and backed it up with great performances. They were a bit unlucky in the semis but they are definitely shaping up to be a good team for the 2022 and 2023 world cups. The India World Cup monkey is also off their back and the sourav ganguly and ramiz raja meeting suggests that India and Pakistan bilateral relations will also improve. This is great news for a country with so much raw talent who will be able to show their performances on the big stage. 2 decades later Pakistan is back on the right track. Hope they will be a force to reckon with in the next few years. All the best to babar and the boys!!! People are definitely behind the team again. Pakistan Zindabad!!

 

[MenInG]

Without doubt. We did everything right until the SF!

 

[Unbiased-Fan]

If this is Pakistan's best ever campaign, then sorry to say Pakistan is an extremely mediocre side in ICC tournaments.