Cairns was tonight found not guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice on the first day of the ninth week of a marathon trial at the Southwark Crown Court in London.
That he can go back to his normal life is in no small part because of the vigorous defence mounted by Mr Pownall and his "learned junior" Simon Ray.
Pownall, 63, is considered one of the star silks in London, a counsel regarded widely as one of the best jury advocates of his generation.
Once the senior prosecutor in cases like the murder of UK TV personality Jill Dando, Mr Pownall is now one of the most sought-after defence barristers in London.
In contrast to the confrontational cross-examination tactics of Crown prosecutor Sasha Wass QC, Mr Pownall was passively aggressive in his approach to witnesses.
There was no mistaking the intent behind the words, however.
Scorn was poured on nearly every aspect of Lou Vincent's account; a self-confessed cheat and liar, who, according to Pownall, implicated Chris Cairns in match-fixing to save his own skin.
Vincent replied "I can't recall" to so many questions, Pownall suggested he scored a century of memory blanks.
Vincent's former wife Ellie Riley was not drunk but "infected with alcohol". Discrepancies in Brendon McCullum's statements were like "shifting sands", while the evidence of others evolved to fit an agenda.
Pownall forensically picked holes in the Crown case and asked the jury to focus on the evidence - not words.
A smiling Chris Cairns pictured at Southwark Crown Court. PHoto / Chris Gorman
"This case is all about words," said Pownall in his closing speech.
"Words which describe deeds, when the evidence of the deeds themselves more often than not contradicts the words used to describe them."
Ex-Cycling NZ CEO Andrew Matheson was questioned in the coronial inquest into Olivia Podmore and disputed the statements of several other witnesses close to the Rio Olympian.
