Two matches into the Super 12 stage of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, many cricket fans in Pakistan are saying they would be happy if the Green Shirts ended their campaign without achieving anything more: They have humiliated arrogant India with a ten-wicket defeat and downed New Zealand by five wickets in the first two games of the tourney.
After humiliating arch-rivals India and taking sweet revenge on Kiwis, Shaheens have gone top of their Super 12 group. The best part, however, was how the Pakistani social media stayed graceful in the wake of the back-to-back victories, quickly taking to task the few ungracious voices coming from among their ranks
Pakistan vs India is always a high-string, high-stakes affair filled with plenty of drama be it an ICC event or a bilateral series. This game, however, topped all previous games given the context of cancelled NZ and England tours and the arrogant behaviour of Indian fans and some former players ahead of the match.
Going into the game, Pakistan were underdogs for two reasons: Firstly, India have the upper hand of the head-to-head tally in the T20i format of the game – although Pakistan is the clear winner in both the other formats. Before this game, Pakistan had defeated India only once in this format, in 2012.
The second reason was Pakistan’s legendary World Cups jinx: For some odd reason, India have dominated Pakistan at ICC events in both 50-over and T20i World Cups. Before this game, Pakistan and India had clashed five times in T20i World Cups, every last one of them going to India.
Who knew it would fall to the lot of Babar Azam’s young squad to break the jinx on 24 October 2021?
Two of the greatest batsmen of this generation, Virat Kohli and Babar Azam led their respective sides. Both teams stacked plenty of star power, setting up expectations for a high-quality game but the pressure was clearly on Pakistan.
However, on this occasion, the Green Shirts dealt with the pressure successfully, converting it to their strength.
After Babar Azam elected to bate after winning the toss, the game began with Shaheen Shah Afridi’s new ball heroics as in-form KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma were sent back early to the dugouts.
This was followed by Hasan Ali’s dismissal of Suryakumar Yadav, and the Pakistani side started visibly smelling blood. Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant put a 50-plus partnership to bring India back in the game, but that was about all the resistance India had.
Pakistan kept picking up wickets on regular intervals and India managed only 151 runs on the board. Afridi emerged as the star of the show with 3 wickets in his 4 over spell.
It was still very much an evenly poised game when Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan walked to the middle, but things soon took on a different complexion as the pair started mercilessly pommelling the Indian bowling.
In the end, Shaheens made it look like a walk in the park by achieving the target in 14 overs without losing any wicket.
The game against New Zealand was equally high-strung because the Shaheens were under pressure to win it to prove a point or two. And indeed they made the Kiwis rue their lack of experience playing Pakistan bowlers when they struggled to face the young pacer Haris Rauf who finished with 4-22, restricting the New Zealand to a paltry 134-8.
Given how they humiliated India in the previous game, Pakistan were expected to cruise to the target but that was not to be as their signature batting collapse emerged again after Babar Azam’s early dismissal.
By over number 15, the games appeared to be slipping out of the reach of the Men in Green 87 with five wickets down. Shoaib Malik and Asif Ali rode to the rescue at this point, putting up an unbeaten 48-run partnership.
In particular, Asif’s contribution was whose back-to-back sixes in the 17th over put the Green Shirts on top again and enabling them to finish the game with eight balls to spare.
As we go to the press, Pakistan is preparing to take on neighbours Afghanistan on 29 October, who have proven their mettle in the game time and again despite being neophytes. The next two Super 12 games are likewise against neophyte teams Namibia (2 November 2021) and Scotland (7 November 2021).
