And so ends an impressively fatuous experiment: what happens when the best team in the world gets the dice loaded in its favour? On a sultry night at the Dubai International Stadium, we got the entirely foreseeable answer. Pakistan’s tournament is India’s glory, by four wickets with six balls to spare: a triumph that felt as immaculately controlled as the months of sabre-rattling and politicking that preceded it.

None of which is to diminish the acclaim due to India’s players: men of skill and men of character, men who step up and deliver under pressure. They did not devise the format in which everyone else travelled, toiled and adapted while they stayed put. They did not construct the apparatus of a global game run in the interests of one country. Ironically they are easily good enough to have won this trophy without any competitive advantage, in any conditions, on any schedule: a side that bears comparison with any to grace the white-ball game.

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