Mohammed Shami, at his best, is at it from the word go. When he is in rhythm, he hardly wastes any time in hitting the right lines and lengths. But it wasn’t the case on Sunday as he struggled to get his radar right. In an over that would have given flashbacks to 90s kids of the stat to the 2003 World Cup final, Shami had to bowl 11 deliveries to complete a legal 6-ball over. It wasn’t quite like the 15 runs that Zaheer Khan conceded that forgettable day in Johannesburg, but it was the first sign that something was off with Shami in Dubai. He then went off the field, pointing to his shoes. By the time he got close to finishing his third over, the physio was out, massaging his right calf. Shami then slow-walked into the dressing room. A couple of days after his 5-for, it was a worrying start to the big day for India’s ICC hero. Somewhere in Dubai, Sunil Gavaskar must have muttered to himself that cricket is a great leveller.
Bah! for Babar as another start wasted
Babar Azam made a watchful start on Sunday. After his slow 64 in the previous game, the knives were out for Pakistan’s best batsman of this generation. Babar left alone a couple of balls, then used the straight face of the bat to cut out risk. Both Mohammed Shami and Harshit Rana gave him some time to settle down by bowling wides. Babar didn’t seem able to get the ball off the square till he worked the ball to the leg side for a couple against Rana. But in the fourth over, bowled by Rana, Babar got going. He used his wrists to guide the incoming ball to the mid-wicker fence. Two balls later, he unfurled a lovely cover drive to a delivery outside off stump. Then a pitched up delivery by Hardik Pandya, called into service early because Shami had a niggle, was driven through the covers. The real shot of intent came a little later. Babar stepped down the track and launched Axar Patel over mid-on and to the boundary. But Hardik had the last laugh. Driven again for four, he got Babar to drive the next ball only for him to nick it to KL Rahul. The slight away movement did Babar in. 23 off 26 with 5 fours. Another Babar innings gone down the drain.
– Nihal Koshie
Inzy to Imam…run outs that run in the family
Pakistani openers were shaping up nicely in the first powerplay with batting that was steady yet watchful. But the Indian team bounced back in the last overs as Hardik Pandya lured Babar into playing a cover drive nicking one behind to KL Rahul and giving him a bit of a send-off. The next one was a throwback to the glorious 90s – and it was a theme that will never stop bringing merriment to Indians and draw out wry gasps from Pakistan fans. After Pandya’s send-off of Babar, Axar Patel brought his rocket arms into action as he rifled a throw to catch Imam short of the crease who ran mindlessly for a quick single. The languid uncle Inzamam ul Haq had contrived myriad ways to make reaching the crease elusive, in his day for famous run outs. His nephew Imam would not be accused of being lazy, but the desperation to get the single, saw him go rabbiting riskily with the bat being grounded only when he saw the throw steaming in. Pakistan fans would’ve wondered wordlessly how run outs run in the much adored batting family. At any rate, Rohit will probably promise one more dinner for that run-out and India had balanced out the powerplay with Pakistan finishing with 52/2 in ten overs. The powerplay had looked promising for Pakistan when the much-scrutinized Babar played a couple of classic textbook cricketing shots, and later took on Hardik Pandya to score another boundary before going down the pitch to pick another four against Axar. Imam was not looking at his 100%, he played cautiously and it looked like Pakistan would close out the first powerplay without any casualty. But his Go-go Rabbit-ways ruined the powerplay for Pakistan.
– Pritish Raj
When Inzy asked Akram “Aap, yaha kaha??” after a harebrained run out
While commentator Wasim Akram was asked about Pakistan opener Imam-ul-Haq’s run out in the tenth over with an Axar Patel throw striking similarly to his former team-mate and Haq’s uncle Inzamam-ul-Haq run-outs in his career, Akram and Sunil Gavaskar were bantering over the run-out tendency running in the Haq family. It takes us back to Pakistan’s group match against Australia at Headingley, Leeds in the 1999 ODI World Cup. A yorker from Damien Fleming in the 47th over of Pakistan’s innings saw Inzy stuttering and falling over just outside the crease as non-striker Wasim Akram ran towards the striker’s end with Haq being run out by Fleming. Akram had shared the incident multiple times in the past and recalled Haq’s words to him. “Wasim bhai, aap yahan kahan (Wasim,where are you here)?” Akram had told the media earlier. A day prior to today’s match, when asked by Navjot Singh Sidhu about the incident, Akram’s take on the incident, Haq was quick to answer, ‘We decided that we have to take a run so that I get to bat. Tell me one thing, one batsman has fallen down. You don’t see it and you come running. Have you tied a cloth on your eyes? What did you do?,” Haq narrated on Star Sports on Saturday. Pakistan had won the match then by ten runs and Imam-ul-Haq too would hope that his team eventually wins the match today.
– Nitin Sharma
Life in the slow lane
161 dot balls against New Zealand in the Champions Trophy opener which let the run rate climb sharply during the chase of 321. Good teams learn from such mistakes. But not Pakistan. Credit to the Indian fast bowlers, especially Hardik for giving Pakistan batsmen no room to free their arms. There were reinforcements in place to cut out Mohammad Rizwan’s sweep option. The wicket wasn’t two-paced but perhaps a bit slow. (the second innings will give a clearer picture). Saud Shakeel used the paddle shot over the wicket keeper to get a four off Axar Patel. A boundary after 32 balls. It was a no-boundary phase between overs 15.1 and 24.2. Even during the chase against New Zealand, Pakistan’s policy was to save wickets but the acceleration came only from Khushdil Shah’s 69 off 49. Both Rizwan and Shakeel struggled to do the basics right – knocking the ball around in the gaps to take singles and twos. They got into odd positions, perhaps giving too much respect to certain deliveries, without getting to the pitch of the ball to dig themselves into a hole. Any attempt at improvisation was half-hearted. After a steady start, the two wickets of Babar Azam and Imam-ul-haq, put the brakes on the Pakistan innings. But Rizwan and Shakeel pulled the hand brake and decided to go nowhere. Even when they timed the ball well, they had a knack of finding the fielders. Block-by-block the two Pakistan batsmen played into India’s hands. Rizwan is a busy player, like wicketkeepers Pakistan produce, but on Sunday his many movements at the crease didn’t result in big shots. Will this first-gear phase hurt Pakistan?
– Nihal Koshie
How Hardik plotted Saud Shakeel’s exit
Middle overs, slumberous surface, batsmen in mood for building the innings forward rather than blazing boundaries, a medium pacer needs to plough deep into his cricketing wisdom to poach a wicket. Hardik Pandya, his knack of setting-up batsmen less celebrated, psychoanalysed Saud Shakeel and hung a clever ruse. Saud is an instinctive puller of the ball and backs himself to take on the fielder. Unlike some of his Asian brethren, he goes really back in the crease and swivels his body to get the control and placement. So when Hardik went short, the third ball of the 33rd over, he imperiously pulled him towards the fence. The next ball was slow, short of length and outside the off-stump which he thudded to point for no runs. The next though was the heavier short ball, not on his body as last time, but outside the off-stump. So far used to the un-distressing pace of Hardik, he pulled him without any hesitation. The ball came quicker, got a tad big on him, and he mistimed the ball to deep midwicket’s grasp. While at first sight, it seemed like the batsman’s indiscretion, in reality it was a clever seamer cleverly entrapping a set batsman.
– Sandip G
A review to forget
The way things are going, Pakistan and its players don’t seem likely to win too many awards in this tournament, but if there’s an award for the worst DRS challenge, Shaheen Shah Afridi would be in the running. Batsmen often find it difficult to believe they are out, but Afridi took it to another level. Coming to the wicket in the 43rd over after Agha Salman’s dismissal, the left-hander was rapped on the pads by Kuldeep Yadav on the first ball itself. Umpire Richard Illingworth wasted little time in raising his finger and Afridi almost immediately made the ‘T’ with his hands. His conviction, for a moment. made some wonder whether he had got an edge to the ball or it was spinning too much to miss leg-stump. The first replay showed that the bat had missed the ball by the width of two stumps. Afridi was hit on off-stump when he played back to a full delivery with the ball turning in to hit the middle of middle stump. That Pakistan had two reviews in the bank may have prompted Afridi to go upstairs, but the replays weren’t a good look for him.
– Tushar Bhaduri
