The crowd had left their seats, preparing to head out. It had been a long day, and they'd seen by far the best game of the tournament. They pooled up at the front of the stands; perhaps they'd catch one more over. And then Alex Carey clothed one to mid-off. Glenn Maxwell was coming in, so they couldn't leave before giving him the biggest cheer of the evening and watching a little cameo.
Mark Wood came straight into the attack, the tournament's fastest bowler who had bowled England's quickest-ever opening ODI spell at the top of the innings. This, perhaps, was the contest distilled to its most electric - matchwinner pitted against matchwinner, the outcome of this mini-context potentially decisive to the larger result.
Wood set three men on the rope on the legside for the first ball he'd bowl to Maxwell, including a square leg. For someone who'd bowled more balls in excess of 150kph than everyone else in this tournament combined, it didn't take a great deal of imagination to work out what he was threatening. Instead, he went full, but Maxwell doesn't need time at the crease to recognise a bluff when he sees one. He latched onto it, pummelling it through the cover region left vacant to lend credibility to that bluff. Four.
There was no pretense for the next ball as Wood arrowed it in search of the yorker, but once more, Maxwell wasn't backing down. He lifted this one over mid-on. Four more. The crowd didn't move, not even to go back to their seats. Lahore's post-match traffic may be a nightmare to deal with, but missing any of this would be worse.
****
Every seat at the Gaddafi was sold out for this game, and yet it was never quite clear what the people wanted. There is veneration in Pakistan for Australia's relentless assault on the biggest trophies, while England's white-ball revolution over the past decade has brought with it a new generation of young fans, especially as the country is one of the biggest exporters of talent to the Pakistan Super League.
By the time the game drew near its enthralling finale though, the overwhelming sense that gripped this ground was one of inevitability. Gaddafi may not have held an ICC event for the best part of 30 years; indeed, the last such game at this ground was perhaps the last of an era where Australian triumph in these occasions wasn't fait accompli.
A lot has happened in the three decades since, and plenty of it has happened to this crowd. As Australia clawed their way back into a game England thought they'd killed them off in, no one would have felt surer of an Australian win than those gathered around this venue.
It was Australia who came in with an attack that was part Sheffield Shield part Big Bash; it would be something of a mathematical violation to maintain the whole added up to an ODI bowling unit. It was their best bowler - Adam Zampa - who Ben Duckett had thoroughly bested, plundering 50 off the 36 balls he faced en route to a Champions Trophy record 165, leaving Australia comprehensively deprived of wicket-taking options.
When, in defence of 351, Wood and Jofra Archer breathed early fire to send back Australia's most-explosive batter and their best one in quick succession, the remainder of the game threatened to become an English victory procession. They even did what Australia couldn't in the middle overs, spinners Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone combining to remove Marnus Labuschagne and Matthew Short, who had built up a sneakily menacing 95-run stand which kept Australia in touch with the asking rate. Now, alongside Carey, it was all up to Josh Inglis, ODI average a tick above 23.
However, Australia follow a strategy of personal incredulity in these events, as if Real Madrid had suddenly descended on a cricket field and dyed their kit canary yellow. For this side, there isn't so much regression to the mean as there is eternal servitude to history, where past success guarantees future triumph. Two overs after that double-blow, Carey lifted Livingstone - one of England's two compromise bowlers, the price they were paying for an extra batter - for two boundaries, and at the halfway mark Australia were just ten runs behind England at the same stage. The game entered a tug of war as England, still notionally with the upper hand, remained content as long as the floodgates didn't open.
But with wickets suddenly drying up, Australia were always destined to be in control of the final sprint. England's had done exceptionally well not to let their middle overs with the bat - a recent Achilles heel - derail their innings, prioritising wicket preservation while milking the middle overs. ODI sides have averaged 151 dot balls in a full innings since the 2023 World Cup, or just over half their full quota. For England, this was down to just 107, a near 15% drop. However, they had not made the most of the platform they constructed, only 83 coming off the final ten overs even as Australia turned to their fifth and sixth bowlers at the death; Labuschagne bowled two of the last three overs.
So by that time the crowd were stealing a few late peeks at Maxwell against Wood, they stood not to see an outcome decided, but an inevitable heist completed. The following over, Inglis slapped Carse for one six before scooping him for another, and he whacked an Archer slower ball into the Imtiaz Ahmed stand at midwicket three balls later to bring up his hundred. Maxwell, now primed against Wood, whacked him for another six and a four; he would finish with 31 off 11 balls from Wood and Archer. The coup de grace came from Inglis, of course, a six off Wood when just two were needed; he had added almost a fifth of his runs tally built up over 28 ODIs across one Lahore evening. The last 70 runs of the chase had taken just 33 balls.
It was only after that final Inglis blow that Gaddafi Stadium, in unison, turned around and began to walk away. It remained impossible to say if this was the outcome they wanted; St George's Cross and the Southern Cross had been seen in equal measure in the stands. But even as the foe that has dealt them more pain than any other inaugurated their gleaming new stadium by laying their dreaded hex on it, they had smiles on their faces. It felt much nicer when it was happening to someone else.