It's difficult to show a brave face and put up a show when all your teammates have given up and faded away. But Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar did just that against England at Cape Town during the 2003 World Cup group stage clash.
Needing 247 to win the match and improve their chances to qualify for the Super Six stage, the Pakistani batsmen struggled from the start with Shahid Afridi departing after smashing a six off Andrew Caddick.
Soon after, a young James Anderson ripped through the sub-continent batsmen and reduced them to 59/6 on a wicket that had almost nothing to offer the bowlers.
Pakistan was impressive in their bowling effort as they restricted England under 250, which was an under-par total on a wicket that gave very little or no assistance to the bowlers.
Barring Shoaib Akhtar, all Pakistani bowlers bowled tight lines and didn't let a flourish from Paul Collingwood (66 off 73 balls) take England over a psychologically advantageous 250 run mark.
But Shoaib Akhtar did not want to be kept out of the game and wanted it to be remembered for his record-breaking performances. First, he breached the 100-mile an hour mark bettering his own record of the fastest ball bowled in cricket with a delivery clocking 161.3 kmph (100.23 mph).
The milestone ball was faced by English opener Nick Knight, who just nudged the ball away to square leg fielder without yielding any runs off it. However, Akhtar was most expensive bowler on the day giving away 63 runs from nine overs and only bagging the wicket of Michael Vaughan.
Akhtar apparently was not satisfied with it and wanted more as he came out to bat as the number 11 with Craig White's three wickets putting Pakistan out of the game at 80/9. But the scorecard didn't stop the Rawalpindi Express from putting up a show as he dismantled the English bowlers with some clean hits to the fence and some over it.
Shoaib Akhtar scored 43 runs off 16 balls before he was castled by Andrew Flintoff while backing away too much on the leg side, a tactic that worked for him during his short-innings.
The innings which was the Pakistani paceman's highest ever was also the highest score by a number 11 batsman in the history of World Cup. But even with his cameo, which included five fours and three sixes, the margin of the Pakistani defeat could only be reduced to 112 runs.
Shoaib Akhtar's performance on the day stood out and would be a memory that the paceman would cherish throughout his life.
With the loss, Pakistan were in a difficult situation as they had a must-win game to be played against India, which they eventually lost courtesy another Sachin Tendulkar excellence.