What a win!
January 2010. Sydney. Pakistan needing only 176 to win capitulates for 139, handing the world No 1 Australia an improbable victory by 36 runs. Fast forward. January 2012. Abu Dhabi. Defending a mere 144, Pakistan’s spin trio on a slightly difficult but by no means a jigsaw puzzle of a patch, rolls over world No 1 England, bundling it out for its lowest ever against us: 72, exactly half of what was required. The spineless crumbling from a position of strength then and nerveless demolition of the highest ranked outfit in the world now from a relatively weak spot neatly puts into sharp relief the distance Pakistan cricket team has travelled in these last two highly eventful years.
This really is a time to rejoice. And not merely at the turn of events, which is something truly remarkable and splendid in itself. From absolute pariah to the conqueror of what is touted as the best and most well-rounded side in the world, Misbah-ul-Haq and his charges have proved one thing: Pakistan is a team to reckon with. Not a mean feat in the circumstances. Freed from the ingress of chicanery and deceit, what is more, it is a team that never says die, that soaks pressure as if it is thriving on it, that hangs together in times of strife and that bails itself out of turmoil through sheer chutzpah, finding itself a man, or better still, men of the moment whenever it is hard pressed. Ingredients that we so yearned for through the 1990s and 2000s, the two decades of missed opportunities for Pakistan cricket, without our highly precocious and acclaimed talents ever realizing their full potential. At Abu Dhabi, when push came to shove, Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq, two young batsmen proved their credentials with grit and application. And at the crunch, Abdul Rehman and Saeed Ajmal delivered the coup de grace.
Rallying around a skipper who shuns projecting himself as the saviour, our players are punching way above their weight – hanging in there through sheer resolve. We’ve bounced back, big time, and quite swiftly. This is a sign of remarkable resilience, an indicator that we have a reservoir of extraordinary talent. This rejuvenation also reflects not just our cricket putting its best foot forward in adversity but the character and spirit of the Pakistani nation in times of turmoil. For the Pakistani cricket fan, this indeed is the time to celebrate, but for our management also a time to guard against complacency and mismanagement of the not-so-distant past.
