34 World Cup wins in a row.
It is one of those ludicrous records which will likely stand forever, and have a unique, unmovable place in cricket statistic history, like Don Bradman's Test batting average of 99.94 or Sachin Tendulkar's hundred international centuries (admittedly he's only made 99 of those so far, but you'd have to be madder than a Shahid Afridi swipe to long-on to think he won't reach the landmark).
Even Gavin Hamilton's rather special Test record (played one, scored no runs in two innings, took no wickets in 15 overs) has its own place in statistics history, and so too will Australia's 12-year unbeaten stretch in World Cups find its own little corner in the books.
But defeat today was about more than numbers and figures.
Australia, despite cruising unbeaten through five matches in the subcontinent, are not the force they were.
But so long as nobody beat them, the aura could remain, almost unchallenged, as sides fell away, exposed by their own limitations and vulnerabilities.
Few teams do vulnerability quite like Pakistan, but equally few have a knack of pulling out an extraordinary result.
As such, the match never felt won despite the men in green being ahead of the game from start to finish.
Only once Abdul Razzaq, who nearly half his lifetime ago was a member of the last side to beat Australia in a World Cup clash at Headlingey in May 1999, struck the winning runs, did the enormity sink in.
Australia have made a habit of winning from any position. Occasionally they wobbled, but they always managed to fix it before it was too late.
What other side could have come out smiling from the position of being 1 run and four balls away from losing the 1999 World Cup semi-final?
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