If the destructive power brought to bear by Aaron Finch and David Warner allowed Australia to evade the ignominy of their worst-ever global tournament display, then it also underlined why the sometime favourites will fly home with an especially bitter memory of the 2014 World Twenty20.
Finch and Warner alone possess enough pyrotechnics to dominate a match - as Bangladesh discovered in a chase that consigned the hosts to the ignominy of failing to win a single fixture in the main draw. So for the Australians to be leaving the tournament at such an early stage will be the cause of some introspection by the captain George Bailey, the coach Darren Lehmann and the selectors. To avoid going home without winning any of four games was the most modest of rewards.
It remains to be seen whether Bailey will continue as the specialist T20 captain, having guided Australia through two tournament campaigns for diminishing returns. He ended Australia's tournament with a hollow-feeling six as Finch and Warner swung lustily but intelligently, but looked nonplussed at times in the field as Bangladesh wriggled to a higher total than a more ruthless and balanced Australian combination might have conceded.
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Equally glum were Brad Hodge and Brad Hogg, the two most venerable members of Australia's squad, left out for the final match and unlikely to figure in future assignments.
Both Hodge and Hogg might have been utilised differently in the team, something that Shane Warne certainly felt preferable, suggesting on commentary that the former could have been used at No. 3 throughout.
Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim had prospered through the middle overs against a fairly monotone collection of medium pace and above, while Glenn Maxwell's spin was not in the class of that in the armoury of Hogg and James Muirhead, also left out of this match, or numerous others sitting at home, including the Test spinner Nathan Lyon.
The omission of both specialist spin bowlers chosen for the tournament seemed a kind of concession that Australia's slow bowling plans had been awry, with the use of five seamers a rare curiosity in a tournament where all the most accomplished teams have relied on quality exhibitions of flight, dip and turn.
Mitchell Starc looked underdone, as he has appeared all tournament, while Doug Bollinger huffed and puffed to little effect.
The best of the pacemen was the third string Nathan Coulter-Nile, who gained some new ball swing for a pair of early wickets, before maintaining his economy for the remainder of a spell that strangely went uncompleted.
Instead, Shakib and Mushfiqur accumulated soundly against bowling that did not offer much in the way of a threat, while speckled with five wides and two no balls.
Granted 153 to defend, Bangladesh bounced onto the field in expectation, but soon found themselves being smashed around Mirpur by Warner and Finch.
This was the kind of display many had expected to see earlier in the tournament, when Pakistan, West Indies and India all escaped unharmed from their encounters with Australia's opening pair.
Warner skied an early half-chance that fell short and essayed one other reverse hoick but otherwise clattered the ball in sensible areas.
Both he and Finch sat on the back foot to the spinners and capitalised on any shortness of length, before climbing out to swing sixes when the bowlers tried to compensate.
West Indies 166 for 6 (Bravo 46, Sammy 42*) beat Pakistan 82 (Badree 3-10, Narine 3-16) by 84 runs
West Indies scored 84 runs in their first 15 overs. They nearly doubled their total after that, smashing 82 off the last 30 balls of the innings. No Full Member team had ever conceded so many in the last five overs of a Twenty20 game.
It remained to be seen which part of West Indies' innings, the first three-quarters or the final quarter, would make a bigger impact on the result as Pakistan began their chase, in a knockout game to determine who would take on Sri Lanka in the first semi-final on Thursday. In the end, West Indies could have declared after 15 overs and still won.
The timing of the assault by Dwayne Bravo and Darren Sammy - they put on 71 in 32 balls, having come together at 81 for 5 in the 14th over - was a knockout blow to Pakistan. You could tell by the way Sammy pumped his fists after pounding Saeed Ajmal for a straight six in the 19th over. It wasn't arrogance or bravado. It was adrenaline.
It surged through the entire West Indies team, and some of it was still coursing through Krishmar Santokie's blood when he pinged Ahmed Shehzad's front toe plumb in front of middle stump with an inswinging yorker, first ball of the chase.
Shehzad, an unbeaten centurion in his previous game, was out for a duck. Pakistan never recovered. They were yet to take a run off the bat when Kamran Akmal faced up to Samuel Badree for the start of the second over, and two more dot balls provoked a scoop straight into wide mid-off's hands.
The pressure, in Badree's next two overs, got to Umar Akmal and Shoaib Malik as well. Both were stumped, one foxed by a googly, one getting nowhere near the pitch of a legbreak. Pakistan were 13 for 4, and slipping to a painful defeat.
It had started so well for Pakistan. Their bowlers were on target, their fielders were buzzing, and West Indies were barely switched on. As usual, they weren't rotating the strike.
Before this match, singles and twos - they hadn't yet taken a three - had constituted 32% of West Indies' runs in the tournament. Their percentage wasn't just the lowest among all the Super 10 sides, but an outlier as well. Eight of the teams had scored 40% or more of their runs by actually running them.
The Powerplay brought West Indies the first three of their tournament, and four singles. Not all of their 24 dot balls, though, were the result of hitting to fielders. Some of them came via Sohail Tanvir's awkward angle across the right-handers, exaggerated by some late away-swing.
Having been beaten three times in a row - the last two balls of the second over and the fourth ball of the fourth, when he came back on strike - Dwayne Smith tried to run the ball to third man and only managed an edge to the keeper.
By then, West Indies had already lost Chris Gayle, who came hesitantly down the pitch and thrust a hesitant bat at an offbreak from Mohammad Hafeez. After that stumping, Hafeez's T20 record against Gayle looked like this: six balls, one run, three wickets.
At some points, it appeared as though West Indies were better off not taking the singles. Lendl Simmons, who kept the innings going in the early stages with a 29-ball 31, was out twice to the same ball. He wasn't given when he was struck on the back pad trying to cut a skidder from Shahid Afridi, but the third umpire had an easier decision to make when Umar Gul's direct hit caught him short as he tried to sneak a leg bye.
Gul nearly had another run-out when Bravo cut Afridi straight to him and took off for a quick single. His throw just missed the stumps at the bowlers' end. Either side of that, West Indies had lost Marlon Samuels and Ramdin. West Indies were five down, Pakistan were on top, and their spinners were rushing through the overs.
West Indies took 23 from the 16th and 17th overs, but their run rate had only just gone above six an over. Pakistan were still in control. When Bravo hit the first two balls of the 18th over for six, though, something seemed to change. Gul had sent down two poor balls - length and back-of-a-length - and followed up with a wide as he tried to compensate with the yorker. That over went for 21.
Even Ajmal was rattled. The pair in the middle was powerful and seemingly irresistible, but Ajmal, trying to hurry them by bowling quicker and flatter, completely lost his length. Bravo smashed him for two big sixes, and Sammy hit him over his head for another before drilling one surgically between extra cover and the sweeper for four.
Four years ago in Gros Islet, Michael Hussey had taken 23 runs off five balls from Ajmal to send Pakistan hurtling out of the 2010 World T20. This over cost Ajmal one more run, and sealed Pakistan's fate in the same way.
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