Pakistan should go beyond 20Twenty

                 -Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

                                         I

India has skillfully reduced the chances of Pakistan playing international cricket, by creating terrorism horrors in Pakistan and pressuring other teams not to play cricket in Pakistan for a couple of years now. Yet, Pakistan have now won 7 consecutive T20Is - Equaling the record held by South Africa. Pakistan overcame a spirited New Zealand fightback to sweep the Twenty20s 2-0 at the Dubai Sports City. New Zealand focused on keeping wickets in hand, but unfortunately though, they left a little too much to do in the end as Pakistan sneaked home by seven runs.

After a disappointing loss in both last ODIs, Pakistan bounced back strongly and won both the T20I matches, dominating the match from the outset. A clinical Pakistan maintained their perfect Twenty20 record against New Zealand by strolling to a 49-run victory in first T20 on 12 Nov and again another 7 runs victory in the second 20/20 on Nov 13.  The difference between the two teams was the top-order batting. Pakistan moved swiftly. The worms couldn't have looked more different after two overs: Pakistan were 3 for 0, New Zealand were 29 for 1. After seven, it read: Pakistan 53 for 1, New Zealand 44 for 4. Pakistan kept their wickets intact. New Zealand lacked the sort of effort that Nazir turned in earlier in the evening.

Pakistan looks really good with Afridi as skipper and their bowling and fielding look pretty sharp. The batting though still has its problems that should be sorted out on the field. In the first T20, Imran Nazir smashed his first half-century in limited-overs since returning from the ICL and some swinging from the lower order pushed the target to a tough 162. Against the Twenty20 world champions, New Zealand's chances were slim, given the long list of unfit players. The biggest blow was the loss of captain Daniel Vettori to a head injury picked up during the one-dayers.  After electing to bat, Pakistan squandered away a good start and managed to reach 153/5 at the end of 20 overs. New Zealand never really looked in the chase and kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. The required run-rate kept on increasing and the pressure kept showing on the batsmen. However, Brendon McCullum and Scott Styris staged late fightback with a nicely-built 66-run stand. Towards the end, however, NZ was almost on the top, but Pakistan quickly removed the last batsmen at the crease for 20 overs.

Pakistan has lived up to their reputation of being called World T20 Champs with a clinical bowling performance to clinch a thriller on 13 Nov.  NZ got off to a disastrous start, but McCullum and Styris got them back. Ajmal's spell turned out to be the turning point in the match, his wicket of McCullum turned the scales in their favour. Once he was gone, it was all over for the Kiwis who fall 7 runs short in the end. Pak win the series 2-0. Styris walks off in disappointment, but the crowd is up in arms, celebrating a Pakistan win. New Zealand says it lost a lot of players due to injury and they were never really up to the challenge in the shortest version of the game in this series. One of the main reasons for an injury-ravaged New Zealand's feeble showing was the failure of their top order to come up with something substantial.

                                              II

BY keeping sachuin till the end and offer a victory to Indian team would have meant Australians make sachuin look larger and taller than Sydney which they averted probably at the last moment.  Of course, the Indo-Australian mutual appeasement on the cricket field is an established fact. It appears having a better team in cricket, Australia now effectively controls Indo-Aus series and India seems to make prior agreements on some important aspects of the hidden agenda.

Australia has disproved Indian media boost on Tendulkar. It seems Australia has one proved it can have upper hand, decide the course of the match and finally win if it chose an if the mafia signals them to go for the final kill. Austria has squashed the media contention that Sachin is the secret of Indian victories glory so far. Australia offered the luxury of expansive short to Sachn and never sought to kill him until the critical moment approached when they have wind up the show and have a control over the series  Sachin thus score 175 in fifth OSDI but could make India either win or shine.

It seemed options before the Australians are three fold: keep Sachin till the end of the match at the crease and let India win; tow, let Sachin stay on comfortable with his bat till the end and let all other batsmen fall leaving only sachuin still with his bat, witnessing the end of Indian show pathetically and, third, shut him towards the end keeping the merry crowd thunder bound, which ultimately happened. The eventual decision for Australian to claim victory by 3 runs only towards end after prolonging the match, could have been taken earlier, may be by the cricket mafia and signaled to them on the field.

However, the Australian hosts helped Sichuan to resurrect himself from the deep recession he was undergoing for a long time now with continued flops with bat. Indians now perhaps think and know sachin’s continued stay at the crease has brought about the final flop of Indian side. Once again, the claim that Sachuin’s presence or play would enhance the success of Indian team, has been thrashed badly.

                                                              III

According the recent trends, Australians are cricket prowess is double of India and Pakistan is below 35 percentage of New Zealand in ODI and 200 percent in 20/20. If Australia played the last ODI, washed away by the rains in Mumbai, they were better poised for a win making their position almost three times that of fanatic India making Indian media cry over the spoilt milk. 

The current matches on Nov 16 between Sri Lanka and India in Ahmedabad clearly shows it is not the batsmen who decides about his performance, but he opposite bowlers who in fact determine how many runs approximately a particular batsman should be offered in a given situation. Sachuin was expected to make 100 plus runs quickly as he was entering his 20 year of cricket in fanatic India. But Sri Lankans saw the event other wise and kicked the Indian media hype sachuin and cut him to size. A helpless Sachin returned to pavilion without scoring any only to watch how Sri Lankans were offering plentiful runs to others --  probably on special request from special quarters,  including mafia. The batsmen can throw their bats if they want to quit on their own, but they cannot score 100 or 50 if the opponents refuse that. Earlier Australian strategic partners offered 170 plus rune to sachin bhai on prior agreements on the eve of his completing 17000 runs and completing his 20 years as a Indian gift to the batsman much pampered by media and state agencies is to boost the fractured Indian image. The very fact the Aussies refused to offer another fantastic inning to sachin in the nest match by restricting him to just 10 while giving 50 plus to weak tail ended batsmen who otherwise would have got just zero to 10 at the most shows what really happens on the field. After getting 170 plus, sachin would have thought Australians are now in his favor and he could score another 100 plus, but the Aussies dashed all his hopes as well as the India’s false expectations.

After removing four batsmen quickly including sachin and Shewag and Gambhir, as Indians were tottering at 32/4, the Lankans decided to let the Indian batsmen escape the Lankan hook fairly easily and it appeared Indians were promised not to trouble any more and Dravid and Doni could score as many runs they wish- both crossed 100 mark without any serious attack, but with fanciful expansive shots offered to them by the visitors.

While the Test cricket serves as massive practice sessions where all possible combinations and permutations are allowed and select cricketers are offered hundreds and other privileges, the 20/20 is a super fast cricket format where all so –called best batsmen and bowlers lost their place. ODI, which is very important for sustained records for select cricketers, like Sachins, from India, whom Indian media praise for his recent 170 gift from Australians for the trouble the Australians have created for poor Indians enjoying life in that country. ODI should be the target of Pakistan now.

Yes, now Pakistan should go beyond 20Twenty format and achieve greater heights in ODI. By being the practice format to help select cricketers “achieve” in their desired field, tests in deed test the patience of the spectators. Younis Kahn’s decision to take a break from cricket captaincy cannot be wrong, but he should have played to be in practice. True, he has not been performing well but  without captaincy pressures, Khan could concentrate on bating skills against the bowling tricks. 

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Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

Specialist on State Terrorism

Independent Columnist in International Affairs, Research Scholar (JNU) & the only Indian to have gone through entire India, a fraud and terror nation in South Asia.