The format comes home
England invented Twenty20 in 2003 and had spent six years watching everyone else get better at it. The second World Twenty20 arrived there in June 2009, compressed into seventeen days and three grounds: Lord's, The Oval and Trent Bridge. Much had shifted since Johannesburg. The Indian Premier League had completed two seasons, the second of them staged in South Africa because of the Indian general election, and a format India's board had opposed in 2007 was now the game's commercial engine. Pakistan came without a home. International cricket had stopped there in March, after gunmen attacked the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore, and the side had been living out of hotels ever since.
An opening the hosts did not want
The first match at Lord's went to the Netherlands off the final ball, a run-out missed and an overthrow conceded in the same delivery. England went through on net run rate anyway, which softened nothing. Ireland then beat Bangladesh and reached the Super Eights. Australia lost to West Indies and to Sri Lanka and were gone inside four days, an exit that would start to look like a habit at this tournament. India, the holders, cleared their group and then lost three Super Eight matches in five days.
Dilshan, and a shot with a name
Tillakaratne Dilshan made 317 runs at better than a run a ball and spent the fortnight lapping quick bowlers over the wicketkeeper's head, a stroke he had built in the nets and which now carries his name. Sri Lanka reached the final unbeaten. Pakistan took the scenic route, losing to England in the group and to Sri Lanka in the Super Eights, before Umar Gul's yorkers and Shahid Afridi's mixture of leg-breaks and improvisation carried them through the knockouts.
Lord's, 21 June
Sri Lanka were 2 for 2 inside an over of the final, Dilshan caught at short fine leg attempting the shot that had defined his tournament. Abdul Razzaq took three wickets. Kumar Sangakkara held the innings together for an unbeaten 64 from 52 balls, and 138 for 6 was defensible rather than good. It was not enough. Afridi, who had also taken a wicket, made 54 not out from 40 deliveries, and Pakistan finished the chase with eight balls to spare.
What it meant
Pakistan had lost the first final and won the second, and did it while unable to play a single match on their own soil, a situation that would last most of the next decade. Ireland and the Netherlands both beat Full Members, which strengthened an argument about qualification the ICC would spend years resisting. And England, beaten at home by an Associate side in the opening fixture, went away and rebuilt specifically for the format. They won the thing eleven months later.