Pakistan’s cricket is often hailed as mysterious and inexplicable instead of being the product of its environment, which it naturally is. Their aspiring cricketers pick up a bat and grip it as they like, without coaches telling them to use their leading elbow, and bowlers cannot extract bounce out of grassless pitches, like concrete, so they move it sideways instead: hence batsmen like Fakhar with his strong bottom hand. As for inconsistency, or “unpredictability”, it stems from an infrastructure, which is not well-resourced by comparison with India’s, England’s and Australia’s: hence Pakistan could field like drains against India in the qualifier, and like a dream in the final.

The century by Fakhar, whose name means “pride”, was not the best innings played in a global one-day final because there was so much playing and missing and top-edging if the ball was short. It was, however, the most audacious and he had much of which to be proud. Fakhar, 27, dared to reach for the stars – never having played a one-day international before last month – and in his four innings in this Champions Trophy, he scored 30, 51, 57 against England, and his 114 made him man of the match.

The critical moment of Pakistan’s innings

The critical moment of Pakistan’s innings, and the match, was the half-second before Fakhar was caught behind off Jasprit Bumrah for only three. The bowler’s front foot was an inch over the popping crease: what a Bumrah mistake. Pakistan would have been eight for one wicket in the fourth over, and struggling to get the ball off the square. Instead, at the end of that over, they were up and running at 19 without loss and sensing it would be their day.