MISBAH-ul-Haq of Mohali, Pakistan’s would-be champion, cast a tragic figure as his team’s World Cup campaign ended in a suffocating defeat at the hands of India. The biggest game in the history of World Cup cricket sent India to a home final against Sri Lanka in Mumbai and Pakistan home to an inquisition.A 29-run defeat creates a false proximity between the two teams. When Umar Akmal was clean bowled by Harbhajan Singh in the 34th over, Pakistan’s World Cup dreams looked all but finished, leaving Misbah-ul Haq to supervise an excruciating run chase that was ill-paced and ill-conceived. It wasn’t the glorious final stand that Pakistanis had imagined.

The first World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan was an affair of low skill and high pressure. India prevailed because they succumbed less to the tension than their visitors. But they felt it too, as ably demonstrated by Sachin Tendulkar’s scratchy and fortunate innings, which bizarrely earned him the man-of-the-match award.

Pakistan’s hero and most people’s star performer was Wahab Riaz, a bounding and pacy left-armer who halted India’s charge with five thrilling dismissals, including the prize wickets of Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh. His place had been in question with Shoaib Akhtar lurking for final hurrah, but the young man bowled Pakistan into a match-winning position.

The batsmen were unable to capitalise, even on solid starts that were thrown away with rash stroke play. Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez, Asad Shafiq and Younis Khan — Pakistan’s top four — were all culpable. This was a reprise of Pakistan’s constant failings, along with their worst exhibition of catching of the whole tournament.

At the halfway interval Pakistan had the match in their grasp. At 100 for 2, they were within sight of a famous triumph, but it was not to be. The pressure of a World Cup run chase was too much for this Pakistan team, weary after many long months of exile from its own land.

A short-term view is clouded by the hollowness of defeat but a more reasoned perspective casts Pakistan’s tournament performance in a very different light. Afridi’s side entered the competition on the back of an unending controversy, with the shadow of spot-fixing dogging their every step. They lost their premier pace bowlers to that scandal and their opening batsmen.

Backed by an inadequate and accident-prone administration, Pakistan cricket had reached its lowest ever ebb by the end of last year. By the start of the World Cup, despite some reasonable one-day form and a hint of resilience in the face of adversity, Pakistan were dismissed as also-rans and no-hopers for the world title.

Instead, the team of Afridi and Waqar Younis thrilled the world at this tournament. They won the hearts of viewers all over the globe, reminded the world of the skill and the audacity of Pakistanis — a people of immense potential battling to overcome the most destructive of circumstances.

That Pakistan became serious contenders for the title is a measure of the success that the team achieved. Yes, there is sadness and heartbreak at defeat. Yes, Pakistan cricket is a flawed and disappointing enterprise. But the cricketers of Pakistan restored some much-needed pride to an embattled nation.

As well as pride, they also brought much joy. For that alone, Pakistan’s cricketers deserve our gratitude.