Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq took an old but tried and tested car out for a drive today. Initially, they somehow drove past the traffic snarls and reached the highway. Just when they were about to shift gears, they were stopped for the customary toll tax payment. Unfortunately, with no FASTag and no money, they both had to get down. In walked Saud Shakeel and Muhammad Rizwan, the Pakistan skipper.
The match was lost in the next phase. As has been the case with Pakistan recently, they try to preserve wickets and go bang-bang in the end. However, this was not to be with this extremely balanced and potent Indian attack. Despite Mohammed Shami being wayward and going off with a calf muscle strain, Rohit Sharma had no problem in rotating the bowlers and keeping Pakistan’s scoring rate well in check.
But, why do I say, the match was lost in the next phase? Is it because Shakeel and Rizwan found the going tough? No. Any new batter on this pitch would feel the same. The same happened with Virat Kohli, same happened with Shreyas Iyer. Is it because they went into a shell? No. Even Shreyas went into a shell in the early part of his innings. One word that has been talked about recently for everything Pakistan has done, is ‘intent.’ Rizwan and Shakeel could not rotate the strike. This resulted not only in boundaries drying up, but also a barrage of dot balls.
Overs 11-20 saw a total of only 27 runs being scored. In limited-over cricket, this is a disaster. Pakistan had committed the same mistake against New Zealand in the powerplay just a few nights back. In the first 20 overs (which include the first 10 overs powerplay) Pakistan played a total of 80 dot balls today. Yes, you read that right. 80 balls out of 120 legal deliveries were dots.
After 50 overs, that number went up to 147. Pakistan did slightly better than the New Zealand game though, where they had played 161 dot balls in 50 overs. Almost 50% of the legal deliveries faced by Pakistan were dot balls today. Rizwan and Shakeel had put the hand brakes on for once and for all and eventually things came to a halt.
Credit to Indian bowlers too. Hardik Pandya didn’t allow the batters any room. Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav bowled according to fields and not to mention, India were brilliant in the field too.
Pakistan didn’t help their own cause either. Rizwan kept hitting everything to the fielders and any improvisation they tried was half hearted. So, the inevitable happened.
Just when Rizwan and Shakeel were looking to break the shackles, Rizwan charged and played an ugly hoick against Axar, only to see his stumps getting flattened. With Shakeel holing out off Hardik’s bowling in the next over, Pakistan’s innings went progressively downwards.
A glaring contrast to this was Kohli’s innings. A master of this format and especially run chases, his intent and intentions were clear from the first ball. Kohli ran like a sprinter on a mission, utilising the big ground to his advantage, exactly what the Pakistan batters had failed to do.
Kohli hit just seven fours in his innings of 100 not out off 111 balls. This means Kohli got 72 runs in singles and twos, astonishing (or is it?) even at 36. Criticise him all you want, but you cannot ever question his unbelievable fitness levels.As my favourite broadcaster Harsha Bhogle said ‘Kohli doesn’t even have to look at the run chase book now a days. He has written the book himself.’
Small droplets of water make the ocean. And in such a high voltage India-Pakistan encounter, small ‘dots’ are making Pakistan stare at their exit in the ICC Champions Trophy.