Pakistan is 40-5 chasing 175 in a T20 competition as Shahid Afridi comes into bat. The game is all but over, but for many Pakistanis it has just started.
I think of a particular gentleman who must be going crazy screaming ‘LALA LALA’ on a Whatsapp cricket group, calling him the savior of Pakistan. I contemplate picking up my phone and talking some cricket. But I am a little too despondent to engage on the group. I resist the temptation.
My wife suggests we should put on a movie; it was Saturday evening after all. Sure, I say, just as soon as Afridi goes back to the pavilion. You know it won’t be too long, I assure her. How long will Afridi last anyway? Three balls, she says. I laugh; he will play 27 balls today, I predict. Even after coming to know him so well over the years, I am still naïve it seems.
When he plays his first ball, I get that funny feeling I would get when he was 19 years younger. I get it almost every time he comes to bat. When Afridi is batting, you never change the TV channel. You don’t go to the restroom, you don’t move, you don’t miss a ball. In recent years, there has been a dearth of such stars in Pakistan. Where there were many, there remain fewer now with each passing year.
Pakistan require 133 runs at a Rate of 10.5 per over. With half the team in the dugout, it is almost lost. The light in my lounge becomes dimmer as I think about a client I met yesterday.
"Do you watch cricket?" I inquired of him. "Not anymore, not really," he replied. Who is playing? He asked.
"Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Pakistan has won the first of the two T20 games," I informed him.
"It is simple, Sri Lanka will win. In cricket that’s the way it goes, this is what happens," said my client with complete certainty.
I smiled and kept quiet. I knew further conversation on the subject was futile.
Afridi begins his innings out of character, with some caution. But you know there is only so much patience he can exercise, he has thrived on being the epitome of a Pakistani way of doing things; fast and without too much planning.
He has a reputation to maintain, he is answerable to his people. If he plays 27 balls, he is sure to get a fifty. I mull over the idea like I have for the previous 506 times.
It reminded me of a friend who was always willing to bet on Afridi scoring a fifty, back when he opened the innings. The odds were always so highly stacked against the man, it just seemed my friend had an anversion to money. In retrospect, I think the joy of that one magical innings was good enough for him to savour. He was willing to pay for the times his hero disappointed.
Afridi is suddenly 44 off 20 balls. Is this going to be another blinder? Like the kind only the Afridi can pull off? I have hope, but I pinch myself. Rizwan tries to play a cross-batted whip over the leg side and is clean bowled. Three balls later, Afridi follows suit as cork and leather meet timber. Pakistan is reduced to 107/7.
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Afridi - Six. — AFP |
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And out. — AFP |
My father-in-law calls in and asks if the game is still on. 60 required of 30 balls with 3 wickets in hand, it is as good as over, I tell him.
Anwar Ali, whose career-high is still that spell in the 2006 U19 World Cup final against India, comes into bat. 17 balls and 46 high-octane runs later, he's put Pakistan on the brink of a miraculous win. With seven runs off nine deliveries required, Anwar falls.
Tanvir is slotted in to bat at number 10. Wow, can’t remember the last Pakistani team that batted this deep. T20 is ideal for the bits-and-pieces cricketer – everyone needs to bat and a 25-run contribution often determines the outcome of a game. Even 10 runs are crucial when it boils downs to it. And who can understand the bits and pieces cricketer better than Afridi?
But Tanvir's run-out needlessly. Pakistan need six off six as Irfan walks in with memories of Glen Maxwell and the Australian win in UAE last year still fresh.
Fans have zero faith in Irfan's ability with the bat, but it's not really his job. He picks up a single off the very first ball as Sri Lanka misread the situation and stand at the edge of the inner circle. Imad Wasim charges Binura Fernando and lofts him over the long-on fence to seal the match in the most emphatic of manners. It's as if he's done this plenty of times.
But that's how Pakistan have been throughout their tour of Sri Lanka. Devoid of stars, they have produced unexpected results. My wife and I can only exchange a puzzled expression.
This era is marked by the extreme caution, stability and sanity provided by Misbah-ul-Haq, the continued magic and recklessness of Shahid Afridi, and the ever present image of Younis Khan, soaked in sweat and chewing his gum. Above all, the absence of doubt in their integrity has restored a lot of trust that had widely gone missing among the masses.
The five years in the post-2010 spot fixing fiasco have been the cleanest in terms of corruption and politics, within the Pakistani dressing room. While the cricket board has been in turmoil for the larger part, it is the stalwarts within playing XI that have steadied the ship for Pakistan. Most importantly, they appear to have also nurtured a young generation of honest and hardworking cricketers.
Faith and trust takes years to build, but can be broken through overstepping the line once, or just one missed stumping chance. Cricket is a beautiful game where the result is dependent on far too many variables to be put into a simplistic version often presented by the average Pakistani critic.
The game on Saturday evening was special not only because of the records and statistics that it brought forth, or its implausible outcome, but due to the spirit it was played under, which made it so momentous. It does not matter which cricketer is on the screen, when this current Pakistani team is playing, the channels must not switch now.
“My wish is to play the World Twenty20 in 2016 and get a happy ending,” said Afridi earlier this year.
There are many who will hope that Afridi’s wish comes true; that he has a happy ending to this epic saga. And many will hope that it is finally the end of it.
Hope is a characteristic that makes us a resilient nation. It is the opium that keeps us all going, it is our only hope. The boys that return from Sri Lanka have provided their countrymen plenty of it.
In a very Afridi kind of a way, they have even given us the courage to look beyond Afridi.