The Champions!

With no recent cricketing activity of international level at home, no participation in the Indian Premier Profits League, on the back of criticism from their own chief selector and having being ruled out whatsoever to make it to the semis, Pakistan today showed the world what it is capable of. The very fact that Pakistan stamped its presence in two finals in a row in itself speaks volumes of the cricketing talent of the country. Winning one of them and losing the other by mere five runs just adds to it. The unearthing of a 17-year old rookie, who hardly had any flesh on his body, and his resounding success against the likes of Graeme Smith and Tilkaratne Dilshan in crunch games is again a feature to be found in Team Pakistan. At this time, it is also worthwhile to mention the coach Intikhab Alam who was also responsible for the team back in 1992 when the boys brought the trophy home!

Before the start of tournament, when everyone wrote off Pakistan, there was one man still claiming Pakistan to be the favourites – hats off to Wasim Akram!

To all those who think that Pakistan’s win is merely a fluke, then remember that flukes are just one-off. This is some serious progress! Beating the two favourites of the tournament in the semi final and the final can not be a fluke. Also, both wins are quite convincing!

It is a time to celebrate and thank Almighty Allah for giving the nation something to cheer about.

It is surprising to see how a nation stuck in a foreign war and isolation can come out so strong. Again, this shows the character of the people despite the junk given to us by the so-called leaders.

Well done Team Pakistan!

If we just analyse this tournament for a minute, the turning point for me was the return of Abdul Razzaq. He provided stability in the team – his sheer presence made an effect and expectations rose. He didn’t disappoint either, taking three crucial wickets with the new ball in the final. His return also freed up Afridi, who was locked in at number 6 for some late acceleration. That task was given to Razzaq (was never really required in the end), while Afridi was promoted to have a ball. Afridi himself showed a surprising transformation in to a mature batsmen and for me, after YK’s retirement from T20, Afridi deserves to wear the captaincy hat. I’ve seen him doing well in the domestic T20s as a captain. Also, I’d love to see Afridi in Test matches!

Umar Gul topped the wickets table yet again – and that just shows the sheer quality of bowling talent.

This success will go a long way and hopefully bring back those people to cricket who left in disappointment.

Finally, the moment of the tournament for me was when Younis Khan went berserk on Mohd. Aamir when he failed to return to the stumps to collect Fawad Alam’s throw – which incidentally hit the stumps directly. Despite getting the wicket and sealing the match, Younis had more on his mind. Clearly, he was aiming much higher. I was not a fan of YK’s captaincy, but I must admit he has impressed me (a little ).

Good luck to Team Pakistan for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka, and all the future series!

England Stunned By The Dutchmen

The ICC T20 World Cup may turn out to be another tournament to forget for the cricketing fans in England as the Dutch stun the Englishmen in a thrilling curtainraiser. This match will be remembered for a long time not only for it being one of the greatest upsets but also for it being a nailbiter and ofcourse England at the receiving end besing the host.

What looked like a very strong start to the tournament with 89 runs scored off the first ten overs without a wicket loss turned out to be a rather weak effort during the closing stages of the first inning. One evidence of England not playing up to the mark is having hit no sixes in their innings (whereas the Dutch hit 4 of ‘em!). Despite the sluggish nature of the batting in second half of their innings, England managed a total of 162 which, to be honest, looked quite good against a minnow such as Netherlands.

It has to be said that the Dutch played extraordinary cricket, keeping the pressure from the word go. They never allowed England to have a dot delivery and kept taking on singles and rotating the strike coupled with some flourishing boundaries. The bowling was not as bad as it may sound but the fielding effort was, to say the least, pathetic. Only the last over saw 4 missed run out chances and a dropped catch!!! The rest is just an extension.

England panicked, quite badly. There was no need to. They could have planned to take it into a Super Over, by not allowing the extra run. There was no plan for that apparently. They threw it away with overthrow. While the Dutch, on the other hand, gave it their all! The way they scampered for runs showed their eagerness and will to play and win. They were hungry for it. They had passion, belief and the skill. They were in absolute control throughout the game, always ahead of D/L par score in any event of heavy rain. The only attack of panic came towards the end, but the English looked much more worried, and why not. A World Cup upset at home in the opener! The home team is surely going to get a bashing in the media tomorrow. The only hope for them is a win against Pakistan, who on the other hand must be very cautious playing the Dutch having the experience of losing against Ireland in the World Cup.

This T20 WC has surely opened up and the stage has been set up for a great tournament ahead!

Thoughts On The Game & Final XI

It was undoubtedly a lacklusture display of cricket by Pakistan today, but we must also understand what exactly was the purpose of a warm-up game. The fans of the green camp were expecting the team to go all out and probably come close to winning the game. The expectations were very high and the team should have displayed some will to play.

From the word go, there was lack of seriousness, perhaps the very fact that it wasn’t a competitive game was playing on their minds. Also, there was clear evidence of the lack of match practice. To be fair to the captain, he doesn’t have a lot of opportunities to have a look at his players under match conditions and that is why the bowlers were given the ball in a weird manner despite getting hit all over the park. I’m not a fan of YK’s captaincy, but obviously there is no one else suited to do the job, and now that he IS the captain, there is no point in asking for a change.

Another point to note is that there was no plan to conduct the match, against the opposition. If at all there was any plan, it was to give exposure to all men and if the performance is bad, let them continue so that they may improve in time for the real games.

If anything was disappointing, it was the fielding. The extreme lethergy and repulsion from the ball is a worrying sign because the warm-up game should have been used to improve agility in the field too.

The final playing XI to step on the ground to play against the hosts is almost clear. Ahmed Shehzad seemed very confident and will probably open Salman Butt. Kamran Akmal can also be used to open the innings. Younis Khan, Misbah ul Haq and Shoaib Malik will be the sensible batsmen who will try to stabilise the innings when things go wrong. Shahid Afridi will feature in all games but his batting will be nothing to count on. So we have seven confirmed players here. Saeed Ajmal, the spinner, is also likely to be guaranteed a place, given the fact that slow bowlers are very useful in this format of the game. The trio of Ajmal, Afridi and Malik will do the spin job. The inclusion of Fawad Alam is unlikely in the main XI. The problem area is three seamers – Gul and Tanvir will make it for their experience while Arafat may have an edge against Mohammed Amir due to his allround abilities and experience too. The final problem to deal with is the batting order and the bowling order too.

Tanvir must open the bowling but who shall be his newball partner? Arafat? A big NO! Gul can do the job, but as a captain I’d love to use Gul’s 4 overs at the end. If they go with the latter option then maybe Amir will be used instead to open the attack with Tanvir. Again, two left armers isn’t a great option.

The batting is also complicated. Who shall open with Ahmed Shehzad? Akmal, Butt? I’d love to use Afridi there, but I really don’t know why he doesn’t open the innings (as if he scores lots of runs down the order).

My playing XI in order will be:

Ahmed Shehzad
Salmab Butt
Kamran Akmal
Younis Khan
Shoaib Malik
Misbah ul Haq
Shahid Afridi
Yasir Arafat
Sohail Tanvir
Umar Gul
Saeed Ajmal

But given a situation the batting order should be flexible enough to move around the players to suit the requirement.

The final point to note for the game today is that Team India is coming out of IPL, and have a lot of match experience in their bag. The team Pakistan as facing today was much stronger and experienced than the one they faced 2 years ago in the finals. So despite the fact that Pakistan performed badly, credit must be given to the Indians for making a mockery out of Pakistan’s bowling attack.

With that, lets hope the Greens will learn the lesson and make us proud in the coming days!

In The Aftermath Of Lahore Shootout

I couldn’t muster the strength to express my feelings yesterday following the Lahore attacks. I felt absolutely terrible after looking at the images of the bodies of poor policemen who sacrificed their lives to save the Sri Lankan cricketers. I was disappointed, angered and terrified. I still am. These policemen and the driver deserve to be saluted for showing the derring-do at a time of chaos and terror.

Now that almost 2 days have passed since the incident the people of Pakistan deserve to know who are responsible for killing the sport of cricket in Pakistan. Immediately after absorbing the news I expected the two mainstream political parties to try and win points over this incident. The Lanka-Pak match was called off, but another new match had already started. I will talk about the political side later but first I’d like to commend the Sri Lankan team for their cool response to such an enormous attack of terror. They remained calm with Sangakkara going to the extent of saying he had no regrets coming to Pakistan. While the Sri Lankan players demonstrated a magnanimous response, some other cricketing captains who were not even involved in the incident chipped in with disappointing comments. No surprises as the FM of the neighbouring country came out in the media, and instead of expressing grief, used the opportunity to blast Pakistan. Again, I don’t blame him, but it was disappointing.

There were some hints of foreign hand expressed in non-official statements. But what exactly is the official statement? Assume, for a minute, it was India who was behind the attacks, or any other country/organization for that matter. Where was the law-enforcing agency? What is the job of Interior Ministry? Wasn’t the SL team promised presidential-level security? Does the president travel like this? Obviously, if there is an impending attack, it is our country’s job to stop it. If the relevant department fails, it should accept the responsibility? And how many times will this department fail? In September, the same department failed to prevent Marriott attacks, and no one was tried or brought to justice. I did plead for the resignation of Interior Minister at that time, and I do so again. Isn’t it time to accept the responsibility now and step aside? If not now, then when? (more…)

O Lord’s!

It is the dream of every cricketer to get an opportunity to take that walk down the stairs from the dressing room, through the luxurious long room where distinguished guests are seated, on to the pitch amid cheers from the crowd and perform on a ground which is called the Home of Cricket. No surprises, I’m talking about the Lord’s Cricket Ground.

Similarly it is also the dream of every cricket-lover to make a pilgrimage to the Home of Cricket at least once in his life to witness the game in a true gentleman’s environment. Unfortunately, getting hold of the tickets for a match at Lord’s is an uphill task for a number of reasons. There are very few international matches played at Lord’s and the tickets are sold-out rather quickly. Secondly, the tickets are pricey. However, the dream of visiting Lord’s doesn’t shatter because the place offers a guided tour at very reasonable price, which goes even lower for students. For eight quids, one can see even those parts of the ground, which are inaccessible during match days.

Coming from a region where every child is born with an innate ability to stroke the ball with a cricketing bat and/or roll the arms to produce some fast and furious deliveries, it was only a matter of time before I made my way to Lord’s.

First and foremost, let me shower some praises for the man who led the tour of about 20-odd people. The old man was an eloquent speaker and impeccably dressed to present the true image of the game. He was very well versed in the history of not only Lord’s but also cricket in general.

The tour began sharply at noon. The immediate turn-off was the prohibition of photography during the first half of the tour which was limited to the museum and other historical locations. But this was outweighed by the opportunities to click during the next part of the tour. (Keeping in sync, I have added quite a lot of pictures in the second half of this post)

The first leg of the guided tour began in a historical building, which is known to the world as Pavilion. The first place we went to was a huge room, known famously as the Long Room, which at that point was ready for some dinner party (huh!). Anyway, this room is a cricketing art gallery, and the place where most distinguished MCC members sit to enjoy the game. Obviously, it provides one of the best view to watch the game. This is also the room through which the players of the away team have to walk through in order to make their way to the center (!!). It is indeed a long walk from the dressing room upstairs, through the Long Room on to the pitch; and even longer if the batsmen has to return after facing just one ball. (more…)