No one knows what a Pakistan side is up to on any particular day. They may blow the best team on the planet away, only to push the self-destruct button and make their fans question if the crop of players have ever played a game of cricket together.

That has been evident at this T20 World Cup too. They could not defend 48 in three overs against India, and failed to chase nine in the last over against Zimbabwe (three in three balls), despite Mohammad Nawaz and Mohammad Wasim being at the crease. On Thursday, they had 47 in the bank against South Africa with three overs remaining. They ended up winning by 33 runs. If any paragraph ever illustrates what Pakistan are all about, this is probably it.

Pakistan’s display against South Africa also came in a must-win clash against a previously unbeaten outfit, validating the Cornered Tigers tag that has been synonymous to them since the 1992 World Cup. While that is not a bad trait to have at all, imagine what could have been, had they beaten one or both of India or Zimbabwe. With six points (or even eight), they would now have their destiny in their own hands, rather than praying for the Netherlands or Zimbabwe to do them a favour.

But that would have been so… unlike Pakistan, right?

That, in a nutshell, is why they might not make the semi-final of the 2022 T20 World Cup. But this is not the time to dissect what went wrong, to discuss underlying issues with their current philosophy, and how they keep trying to fit square pegs in round holes. The time for that will come. For some in Pakistan, the wheels might have been set into motion the moment they lost to India.

For now, the right thing will be to just reminisce how brilliant a performance the team produced, just when they needed it. Let us start with their middle order, which has been under fire for as long as one can remember. Iftikhar Ahmed, in particular, has come in for a lot of criticism. So, it was only fitting that he dug Pakistan out of the gravest hole they found themselves in.

The all-round abilities of Nawaz, Wasim, and Shadab Khan could have set Pakistan apart from the rest of the pack. Instead, they ended up using Nawaz and Shadab in a way that made one wonder whether having two spin-bowling all-rounders was a bane. Then, against South Africa, both showed how Pakistan had gotten their thinking wrong all along. Mohammad Haris, not a part of the squad until Fakhar Zaman was ruled out on Wednesday, took down Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada in a manner not associated with Pakistan’s safety-first approach.

After reading this, if you have already started drooling or repenting over how differently their T20 World Cup campaign could have panned out, here is a spoiler alert: you have got it all wrong.

Give Pakistan four winnable games to qualify for the semi-final and you can bet your house they will not win them all. They will almost certainly either win the first two and then botch up the rest, or wait to get into a situation where everyone has written them off before springing back to life, metaphorically smirking at those who questioned them.

Their trajectory at this T20 World Cup, thus, should not come as a surprise. In an ideal world, they would have been putting their feet up and thinking about whom they will face in the last four. Pakistan cricket, though, never works that way. Their had set that template with their first global success, in the 1992 World Cup; things have not changed since then.

They were seemingly down and out before their game on Thursday. Their fans complained about h0w Bangladesh and India did not help them out. Babar Azam has still not been able to buy a run here; his trusted lieutenant Mohammad Rizwan has not set the world alight; and Shaheen Shah Afridi has looked way out of] sorts in the first three games. Yet – lest we forget – they were part of two of the greatest games that have ever been played at the T20 World Cup, only to end up on the losing side on both occasions.

After defeats against India and Zimbabwe and a cautious win against the Netherlands, Pakistan were virtually out of the tournament. Yet, being Pakistan, they just had to win against South Africa – undefeated in the tournament until then – almost to maintain the balance of the universe.

If that is their lasting image of this T20 World Cup, it will be a fine depiction, not because it led to a title or a semi-final spot but because it left you wanting more, for good or bad, of the box office team that Pakistan is. The exhilaration, the excitement, the extravagance and at times, the excruciation – that is how Pakistan are. That is how Pakistan are meant to be at such tournaments.

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