Once they hit the back straight, the feature event, for the ICC Twenty20 Trophy, was purely a two horse race.
After jostling for positions out of the stalls and overcoming a few minor bumps over the first furlong, the entrants in the green and gold and the red, white and blue had left the others stumbling in their wake.
Suddenly, as so often in the past, the green of the most dangerous dark horse in the field came storming out of the pack to move into contention to regain the trophy it won last year at equally long odds, forcing the new favourite into frantic action to shake off the challenge and pull clear again.
Now Australia and England head for the winning post neck and neck after
Michael Hussey’s furious whipping and driving and the skill honed by years of experience saw off the fast closing Pakistan for Australia at the top of the straight.
That the finish has come down to the two oldest of rivals represents a stunning reversal of form in the shortest distance yet devised for the international game.
For a dozen years now, Australia have dominated Tests, the longest and still most revered version, even though beaten by a short head by England in their traditional match race, the Ashes, less than a year ago.
They have also completed a hat-trick of triumphs in the mid-distance 50-overs format.
Yet they and England finished down the field in the two previous World Twenty20 sprints.
Both have now found the intensity, consistency, confidence, aggression, and, critically, the special requirements of cricket’s equivalent of the quarter-horse dash that none of the others came close to matching.
There is also that vital factor, desire, an aspect heightened by their age-old rivalry.
The Australians loathe losing. It explains their pre-eminence is so many sports.
Their failures in the first such tournament in South Africa in 2007 (when they were humbled by Zimbabwe) and last year’s in England (when they couldn’t even make it past the first round) rankled.
They arrived in the Caribbean on a mission to put it right.
England’s aspirations are fired by the frustrating realization that their men are yet to win a major International Cricket Council event.
The World Cup, the Champions Trophy and the Twenty20 championship have all eluded them. The last time they reached a final was in the Champions Trophy in 2004 when beaten by the West Indies at the Oval in London. They feel their time is overdue.
Three years ago, also in these parts, Australia secured the 50-overs World Cup for the third successive time, winning all 11 matches by embarrassingly wide margins.
Over the past few weeks, with a vastly changed squad, they have again won every match (except a warm-up gallop against their apparent Twenty20 nemesis, Zimbabwe) with the intimidating efficiency characterized by teams under Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards that once made the West Indies similarly invincible.
They have depth in every department.
Shane Watson and the left-handed David Warner are a menacing opening pair but, whenever they and the top order falter (65 for six against Bangladesh, 67 for five against Sri Lanka and, unbelievably, 144 for seven needing 48 to win off 17 balls as Pakistan came at them), the unflappable left-handed Hussey was there to pull them round, twice with the belligerent Cameron White.
They base their attack on pace, real pace.
Like everyone else, England will find Shaun Tait, Dirk Nannes and Mitchell Johnson a handful today on Kensington’s bouncing surface.
How England’s top order – the new opening pair of Michael Lumb and Craig Kieswetter and No 3 Kevin Pietersen – respond could well be the key to the outcome. They go hard from the start, aiming to maximize the advantage of the field restrictions in the first six power-play overs and leave a firm base for those to follow.
Judging by his 26-ball 42 in the semi against Sri Lanka, Pietersen’s time off to jet back to London to be with his wife for the birth of their first child, a boy, has had no effect on his form. For some time, one of the modern game’s true master blasters, he has rattled along at a strike rate of 134.88 in his five matches.
Had he, Lumb and Kieswetter turned out for the land of their birth, as opposed to the land of their adoption, it could well have been South Africa at Kensington today rather than England.
It is not that Australia are entirely without the spin so favoured by others. Steve Smith, their exciting young all-rounder, is equal third on the list of wicket-takers with his leg-breaks and top spinners.
England’s only blip along the way was in the first round when contained to 120 for eight from their full 20 overs by unfancied Ireland in a rained-out match in Guyana.
In their first outing, the Duckworth/Lewis method negated their highest total, 191 for five, against the West Indies.
Otherwise, they have breezed through each time. It is in the field where the proficiency of both teams separated them from the rest.
To use Sir Viv Richards’ description during the 2007 World Cup, the Australians are like “a pack of wolves.”
They have snared some breathtaking catches, missed no more than a couple finger-tip ones, created run outs and turned threes into twos, twos into one and ones into dot balls.
No catch in the tournament was more spectacular than David Hussey’s sprawling grab that hauled in Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s skier in their demolition of the West Indies on Tuesday night.
They attack the ball and rarely fumble. When Nannes did at fine leg against Sri Lanka, he recovered to unleash a throw from 60 yards that shattered the stumps to run out the poor, startled Sri Lankan batsman.
England have also been almost flawlessly sharp, if not quite as intimidating. It is an aspect sure to be one of the features of today’s contest.
Another will be the contrast in tactics.
While Australia rely primarily on speed, England’s bowling is differently, and ideally, balanced – three quick swingers, two right-arm (Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan), one left (Ryan Sidebottom); two spinners, one flighted off (Graeme Swann), one left-arm darts (Michael Yardy).
While other have used six, seven, some as many as eight bowlers, England’s five have sent down every over but for one of Paul Collingwood’s medium-pace.
For the second time in three years, Kensington hosts a fitting final between palpably the two best teams.
Australia are once again there, as they were in the World Cup in 2007 when they overcame the spirited Sri Lankans to add yet another trophy to their cabinet.
England have now supplanted Sri Lanka by their overwhelming semi-final victory and are just as worthy of their place as Sri Lanka were.
Yet Australia are as formidable now as they were then, their already overpowering self-belief boosted by Friday’s astonishing semi-final triumph. The only ICC title they are yet to grasp is 40 overs away.
It might well be a double. The women’s final follows the men’s. The female Australians have also gone unbeaten throughout and also have to contend with an arch-rival.
They are likely to find New Zealand, their neighbours across the Tasman Sea, as challenging as their men will England.
For their part, the also-rans in both divisions, not least the West Indies, can only look on and recognize what it takes to excel in a tournament already the game’s most popular and, inevitably, soon to become the most lucrative.
