The Mercurial Nail Biting Thriller
Haris Rauf, one of the fastest bowler in this tournament, the poster boy of Pakisan’s “pace is pace yaar!” philosophy, is struggling for form in this tournament. He is hit for 17 runs, 19 runs and 14 runs in his opening over in the previous three matches. Today he was hit for only 9. Improvement.
He lines up to bowl with South Africa needing 11 runs to win and two wickets in hand. He steams in like a runaway train, the ball angles into Ngidi — the number 10 batsman. Ngidi tries to flick it on the on-side, but the ball catches his outside edge and plumps meekly towards Rauf. Rauf, still recovering from his run-up makes a desperate effort, somehow plucks the ball from thin air from his wrong hand and makes a desperate dive during which his hands came crashing down on the hard pitch. He throws up the ball in jubilation as Ngidi cannot believe what he just saw. A caught-and-bowled for ages, which even great fielders will find hard to engineer, was somehow completed by one of the worst fielding sides in the tournament, from a bowler who was the target of all jokes and memes in the world.
Before this spectacle, it was Shaheen Shah Afridi, Pakistan’s strike bowler, who was back to his best. He was steaming in from around the wicket, bowling vicious outswingers, beating the bat on every single occasion. After a disastrous opening over which went for four fours, his remaining 9 overs were to die for, justifying again why he is called one of the best bowlers in the world. Every time he ran into bowl in the final phase of the game, the crowd was rising up and roaring in rhythm with his run up.
Pakistan and Chennai have a special connection.
Mohammed Wasim, who was struggling with Chennai’s heat and cramps throughout the match, was steaming in and bowling at 140kmph. Babar asked him multiple times whether he could bowl with his condition. Wasim said convincingly, “I’ll do it.” Commentator says on the air, “This is the conviction the captain wants to see.”
Finally, there was their captain who was criticised for everything that was going wrong with Pakistan in this world cup. His batting was solid but uninspired. His captaincy was questioned. There were rumours about sub-groups being formed within the team. A rift between Afridi, Rizwan and himself. And there he was, making all the right decisions on the field. His field placings were immaculate as he saved singles. His bowling changes spot on in going for wickets than containing runs. His body language showing that he is commanding the team.
This is vintage Pakistan. This is peak Pakistan. This is the Pakistan that rises from the abyss of mediocrity to become world beaters. This is the mercurial Pakistan that suddenly blows hot after being uninspired for most of their existence. In a must win game, these are the “cornered tigers” that the opposition fears to see.
My wife was watching this “tamasha” unfold with me. She does not like cricket. But she understands enough to comment, “this is how you need to bat in this situation!” when the scorecard flashed with Keshav Maharaj batting on 3 not-out of 20 balls! She was absolutely right. South Africa had made a mockery of the chase and had only themselves to blame.
Just a few days back I wrote how Afghanistan did everything right in their chase of 284. Today South Africa did everything wrong in this routine chase except losing the game. It was shocking that six out of their eight wickets were caught in the air when they were trying to clear the park. QDK hit a pull shot into the throat of Long Leg. Bavuma pulled needlessly to mid wicket. Klaasen edged big to third man. Markram, who had played a flawless innings of 91 until then, got caught trying to hit Usama out of the stadium with only 21 runs needed and four wickets in hand and 50+ balls remaining. He was the last recognized batter!
South Africa are termed as chokers, but this was not really a choke. Their “blueprint” for chasing (as Bavuma rightly termed during the presentation) was wrong. The approach that works batting first doesn’t work batting second. A job that could easily be done using singles, twos and odd boundaries was executed by hitting fours and sixes at every possible opportunity. They nearly lost it had it not been for that unreal “umpire’s call” LBW shout that went in their favour by the tiniest of margins. And had Keshav Maharaj not showed maturity in biding his time to see out Pakistan’s pace bowling, surviving for 20 balls scoring almost nothing. Fittingly he hit the final four for South Africa.
The cricket was not great during most of South Africa’s chase but it was intriguing. This is what was lacking in this tournament for so long. This is what will bring this tournament to life. And it took the most unpredictable, mercurial team on one end, and the most infamous team on the other to produce this classic.
Long live ODI cricket.
