... and that pretty much summarizes June 13, 2009 for T20 World Cup. The only time NZ looked to be having a firm grip on the match was the first over of the match. After Amir's first over where he was wayward both on the on and off side he adjusted well to the pitch concentrating not to do too much but maintaining a consistent line with ball moving away from right handers mostly of-seam.
Pakistan as inconsistent as ever came back from nowhere, as ever, when it was least expected of them. They have had a sinusoidal row of success and failure with their last 6 matches giving a pattern of WLWLWLW. I once read somewhere that before reaching the edge of being evicted from 1992 World Cup, Imran KHAN gathered his troops and told them to play like cornered tigers, leading from the front playing as an injured cornered tiger. I have started to feel and observe that our team in specific and nation in general has this tendency as standard responsive mechanism built deep into their instincts. We have been left out of international cricketing arena for some while now due to teams fearing to come to Pakistan, which is more than partly our fault and another failure we have started to tackle when cornered, and it has deeply affected Pakistani team’s match practice and confidence. Other blows included all key players signing ICL and then ICC banning ICL players PCB agreeing and that entire saga ending in vital gaps in team’s strategic layout.
However, leaving all that aside, with the skipper quoting the game at hands as a do or die game Pakistani team played superbly well today. I believe the preparations started early with team management and captain finally listening to hard bitter truths smashing right into their faces, leaving out Salman Butt (an act that came late but still), resting Sohail Tanvir and including Razzaq.
In the ground there were no vital mistakes, Gul was not given the new ball, which he clearly not feels comfortable with. Razzaq returned to international cricket after almost two years and looked eager and hungry to make a statement as he entered the ring with a solid aim to reclaim his presence and position and boy didn’t he do well taking a first over wicket?
Afridi and Ajmal started the post powerplay period with much confidence up their sleeves and wickets kept falling regularly and then came the final blow starting over no. 12 where Gul started his spell of 3-0-6-5, the first 5 wicket hall in T20 games played to date. Gul demonstrated amazing skill to reverse swing an 11 over old bowl with apparently no considerable support from weather or ball.
Still, however the highlight for me was the catch taken by Afridi of the bowl of Gul to dismiss Styris, Afridi ran 40+ meters towards the boundary directing and managing his run under the trajectory of the ball coming at his back and holding a catch without diving 6-7 meters inside the boundary rope.
As a matter of fact Afridi’s catch shadowed Misbah’s effort earlier which was also a nice catch running backwards although it was less far and less high but it was excellent as well.
Then came the batting, which is still worrying. Although Pakistan managed a much stable start with the absence of Salman Butt, still the shots played by debutant Shahzaib Hasan were not too confident or convincing. Considering it was his first match and he did hit a couple of sizes after 2 mistimed slogs over mid off and on, we expect to see much improvement in his skill and confidence. From where I saw he appeared to be reaching his shots quite early whether he was defending or attacking he looked early into his shots. Talking about the batting order, it was wise of Younis to give Razzaq a chance with the bat at No. 3, he didn’t stay for long but we know he is a consistent performer and its only a matter of time till he becomes lethal again. Malik is still rusty and that’s worrying, but he has shown before he can do better and hopefully he will. I still feel that considering rusty form of Malik and T20 form of Misbah he should come at No. 4 but lets see. Towards the end, Afridi chipped in finishing runs with a well played 29 which must have had helped his confidence and I still believe Afridi, with bat, is a gamble that the skipper should play early with new ball and field restrictions.
All in all well played Pakistan and although their chances to reach semis will come down to run-rates and a lot of “if” scenarios, I personally feel as long as they give it a fight that’s all that matters in the eyes of their fans.
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