The second World Twenty20 cricket tournament is over. Runners-up in the first contest two years ago, Pakistan are the new champions.

Once again, with creative and audacious strokes the order of the day, with fielders flinging themselves on the grass and in the air to save runs and to take catches, with some magnificent catches taken, with the ball flying high and sailing over the boundary and into the stands, it was exciting action from start to finish.

At the end of 27 matches, 7,625 runs were scored - including 166 sixes and 668 fours, and the fans, probably all of them, will never, ever forget Chris Gayle's blitz against Australia when the big left-hander from the West Indies cracked 88 off 50 deliveries with six sixes and six fours, including a massive blow off fast bowler Brett Lee that landed way, way beyond the boundary at a distance of some 105 metres.

And neither will they ever forget the bowling of pacers Lasith Malinga of Sri Lanka and Umar Gul of Pakistan, one for his arrow-like yorkers bowled from a right-arm which sometimes appeared to be below the height of the shoulder at the point of delivery, and the other for his accurate reverse swing which handed him the tournament's best bowling performance of five wickets for six runs from four overs and the most-wickets haul of 13 - one more than Ajantha Mendis of Sri Lanka, Saeed Ajmal of Pakistan, and Malinga.

To me, however, this tournament, the Twenty20 version of the game, will be remembered for some good batting - some good, old-fashioned stroke play, and for some wonderful bowling - some testing spin bowling.

batted well

Dwayne Bravo of the West Indies batted well on two occasions but more so while scoring 66 not out off 36 deliveries with three sixes and four fours versus India; so too did South Africa's A. B. de Villiers who stroked 63 with seven fours off 51 deliveries against India; and so too did Yuvraj Singh of India who spiced some elegant stroke play with nine glorious sixes.

All three batsmen, true to the shortened version of the game, batted fast, and apart from one stroke against Sri Lanka when Bravo fell flat on the ground while hitting the ball to the cover boundary, neither of them played an ungainly stroke.

Apart from scoring the most runs, however, the batsman of the tournament was Sri Lanka's Tillakaratne Dilshan - the inventor of the "Dilshan", the scoop over his head, over the wicketkeeper's head, and down to the boundary.

In scoring 317 runs at a strike rate of 144.74 and at an average of 52.83, in striking three sixes and 46 fours, Dilshan's strokes, except for the one that got him out in the final, were all authentic strokes.

His drives, his cuts, and his hooks were copybook, and especially so in the semi-final match against the West Indies when, standing alone, he scored 96 not out with two sixes and 12 fours off 57 deliveries.

class is class

Dilshan, Bravo, de Villiers, and Yuvraj showed that class is class and that batsmen of class can perform in Twenty/20 cricket - that they can score as fast as anyone without attempting outrageous strokes.

This year, although 99 fewer sixes were scored than in 2007, the batsmen scored at a rate of 7.99 runs an over in comparison to 7.62 two years ago.

Malinga and Gul were good, so too Abdul Razzak of Pakistan and Wayne Warner of South Africa, and there can be no question about that.

The master bowlers in the tournament to me, however, were undoubtedly the spin bowlers.

In 2007, the pacers took 226 wickets at an average of 7.76 runs an over and at an average of 25.14 while the spin bowlers took 80 wickets at an average of 7.88 runs an over, and an average of 23.89.

This year, however, while the pacers took 184 wickets at a an average of 7.97 runs an over and at an average of 25.68, the spin bowlers, led by the likes of Mendis, Ajmal, Shahid Afridi of Pakistan, Muttiah Muralitheran of Sri Lanka, Johan Botha and Roelof van der Merwe, Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha of India, took 130 wickets at an economy rate of 6.70 and at an average of 20.95.

spin bowlers

On top of all that, there were four spin bowlers in the number two, three, five, and six positions in the top six in the most wickets column; there were four spin bowlers in the number one, two, five, and six positions in the economy rate column; there were four spin bowlers in the number one, three, five, and six positions in the top six of the bowling averages; and apart from those listed above, the names included Nathan McCullum of New Zealand and part-timers like Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja of India.

Almost every time, and this really had nothing to do with slow pitches and what have you, that a fielding team was in trouble, that it wanted a wicket or two, or just simply to put the brakes on the batting team, it went to a spin bowler, and on many occasions, a spin bowler was used early, and very early at that, in an innings.

The best of them was Mendis, the man with all the tricks in the bag, including the carom ball - whatever that may be.

My memories of the ICC World Twenty20 2009 will be, for a long, long time, the sight of Dilshan and Bravo, selecting their strokes brilliantly, and while batting at a fast pace, driving beautifully on both sides of the wicket, and also, probably more so, that of Mendis spinning a web of deception around the batsmen.