The very first T20 World Cup, played in South Africa, saw 12 teams take part for the honour of being crowned the inaugural champions.

Still a relatively new format of the sport, it gave opportunities for games which were able to be changed in an instant as the world began to fall in love with the new shortest format of cricket.

The IPL would be born the following year, with much of its success put down to the holding of this first World Cup tournament, which took the sub-continent by storm in particular.

Other T20 World Cup match countdowns
» 2009
» 2010

That, of course, was helped by India getting the better of Pakistan in an enthralling final match.

A total of 27 matches were played, with the ten Test-playing nations (Australia, New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, England and the West Indies) joined by qualifiers Kenya and Scotland.

Here are five matches which stand out as the best from that original tournament, featuring plenty of cricket’s greatest ever stars.

3. England bundled out by Kiwi legends brilliance

Reaching the Super Eight stage, England had been upset by the hosts in the opening game of the round and were in a must-win situation against New Zealand during their second match.

Simply put, it was a case of win, or tournament over.

Chosing to field first, things got off to an excellent start for the Poms, reducing the Black Caps to 3 for 25, then 4 for 31 at the end of the powerplay.

They had the opposition on the ropes after an excellent opening to proceedings from James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Andrew Flintoff, who went on to finish with 1 for 11 from 3 overs.

But they couldn't get continue the rage, as Scott Styris (42 off 31 balls) and Craig McMillan (57 off 31 balls) combined for an excellent partnership to place New Zealand at a total well above par.

England looked like they were going to make light work of it though, with opener Darren Maddy leading the way. England were sitting pretty at 2 for 80 in the 11th over before disaster struck. Let by Daniel Vettori and Shane Bond, England would lose 4 for 24 in three overs, reducing their run rate and putting them well behind the equation.

Another collapse late in the innings after a mini resurgence led by Luke Wright and Oais Shah saw them eventually wind up just six runs short of keeping their tournament alive.

Pathan in particular, who took 3 for 16 on his way to being declared man of the match.