COMMENT – As the World Cup creeps towards the finale of its long-drawn league stage, the Pakistan cricket camp is confronted with all the usual serious troubles: a barren opening pair, a wicket-keeper who would apparently drop a football in his present form, woeful fielding, catching and throwing from the deep, an under-performing and inconsistent batting line-up, mindless running between the wickets, and according to recent newspaper reports, more pressure tactics from the Brothers Akmalazov.
The bowling at its worst can be seen in the context of the Kiwi encounter, Shahid Afridi being the honourable exception. The situation is compounded by an apparent lack of sound game plans, poor planning and tactics, and little contingency planning or out- of- the- box solutions by those concerned.
It can be said that their experienced ex-captain and two of their (and the world’s) best fast bowlers are absent due to other reasons, or that the high-profile scandals of the past year have rudely shaken the confidence and morale of all the players. But then such incidents have become the rule rather than the exception, and any other living organism would have developed a genetic immunity against such regular occurrences.
And yet the team is so rich in promise and potential. It is capable of the most amazing feats, and the more outrageous results are sometimes in its favour. But during this tournament it has been in a rather defensive mode, displaying timidity most in evidence in the match against Canada. With such an approach they barely scraped through.
The greenshirts must take the offensive from the outset in their remaining matches against Zimbabwe and holders Australia. They must shed their timorous mindset and enter the fray with a new-found aggressive intent to throw the unsuspecting opponent off guard. The net run rate, the lowest of the four top sides in the group, must be sharply increased, because when push comes to shove at the close, it might well be the difference between making it to the semis and beyond.
In military strategy it has been well said that ‘a swift and vigorous assumption of the offensive – the flashing sword of vengeance – is the most brilliant point in the defensive.’ Only by this stratagem will they be able to avoid a repeat of the Pallekele panic, the thrashing at the hands of New Zealand at Pellekele (Kandy) in which all the weaknesses were humiliatingly exposed.
Anatomy of a Trouncing: Now that we are a clear four days ahead of the New Zealand debacle, it is possible to take a (somewhat) dispassionate look at the events of ‘black Tuesday’. The past, it is said, is attractive because it is drained of fear, but the pain of the spineless surrender against the Kiwis on the eighth of March will linger in cricket fans for months. And, Time, the great healer, should best stay away!
There was little inkling of the battering to come until the fortieth over of the New Zealand innings. The match was progressing with a measured pace towards the action-packed last ten overs as ODI’s usually do, four wickets down, 210 on the scoreboard, the match seemingly evenly poised. True, there had been ill- omens along the way. On his birthday, Ross Taylor, one of the Kiwi batting storm-troopers along with Brendan McCullum, seemed especially to be favoured by Lady Luck as he started his innings. Off a superb Shoaib Akhtar over, he was let off not once but (unforgivable sin) twice by wicket keeper Kamran Akmal, who later on in the innings also missed a stumping chance.
For the greater part of his stay at the wicket, Taylorwas playing and missing and fortunately eluding the outside edge. But even these premonitions did not prepare the fans for the mayhem to come. Then in the forty- first over, all hell broke loose. Another Shoaib Akhtar over, laden with enticing leg-side full tosses, went for an astronomical 28 runs and Abdul Razzaq, seemingly not to be outdone, gave away 30 in the next.
This was the defining moment of the match, and the greenshirts collapsed like a house of cards, in bowling, batting, fielding and captaincy. The ultimate qualities that make a winner, patience, mental toughness and character in adversity were noticeably lacking in the squad. It was first and foremost, a loss of nerve. The game plan quickly evaporated, everyone went to pieces, and the delighted Kiwis went on a run- rampage not possible even against the cricketing minnows’ bowling.
From a maximum potential score at one stage of about 250, the New Zealanders reached an incredible 302/7 in their 50 overs. The chilling statistics reveal the massacre: 163 runs in the last ten overs, 120 in the last seven and 100 in the last five. Ross Taylor’s seven sixes and eight fours in his unbeaten 131 (124 balls), a Taylor/Oram partnership of 84 in 22 balls, and Ross Taylor’s scoring his last 62 runs off just 16 balls. In reply, it was quickly over for the greenshirts when they collapsed to 45/5 within 15 overs. The cricket equivalent of being tarred, feathered and then quartered!
This was not the first time the (worst) unimaginable happened to our cricketers, and for the cynics, it will not be the last. They (the cricketers, not the cynics) badly need a resident faith healer or witch doctor, or their modern-day equivalent, a psychoanalyst, though one feels that in the latter case, even Sigmund Freud would throw up his hands in disgust at some stage.
Someone once remarked, ‘Victory, defeat, words I do not know what to make of. One victory exults, another leads to ruin. One defeat kills, another brings life’. Under the circumstances, it is best to seek refuge in such philosophical subterfuge and hope this defeat, although mentally scarring, will pave the way for future reviving victories.
And, since this piece is meant to be a (somewhat) dispassionate piece, kudos to Ross Taylor for his 131 not out, a once-in-a-lifetime innings. That is all one can blurt out in praise.
