Boria Majumdar in Dubai
The gulf is just too wide. On a day when Jasprit Bumrah had his third-worst bowling effort of all time, India won with much to spare. Even if India don’t play at their best, they will still beat Pakistan.
Suryakumar Yadav was right when he said, “It is only a rivalry when in 15 games it is 8-7 or something. But when it is 10-1 or 10-0 it is no longer a rivalry.” Pakistan aren’t good enough to challenge India and that’s the harsh truth for every fan of Pakistan cricket.
That’s what brings me to all what we have seen in the last two days. Why would Pakistan hire a mental-conditioning coach 24 hours before the game? Are you telling the players that they are mentally fragile and hence they needed a coach on the eve of the match to prop them up? Is this actually helping the players? Why was the Pakistan captain not allowed to come to the pre-match press conference? Are you trying to imply that he can’t hold his own in front of the media and isn’t good enough? Then why make him captain in the first place? Finally, why did Mohsin Naqvi come to the Pakistan training session on the eve of the game? Did it serve any purpose?
Rather, the moment he arrived, the practice was disrupted and everyone started to attend to him. For whatever its worth, Pakistan were not able to prepare as well, with their Interiors Minister landing up there at the ICC Academy.
The truth is the result is a god sent. Had Pakistan won, they would have done something outrageous and the tournament would have gone off the rockers. What Sahibzada Farhan or Haris Rauf did is an indication of what was brewing. Had the result gone their way, they wouldn’t have been able to control tempers and there was every chance things would come to a boil.
With India having won, they will all now move on and cricket will be back in focus. India have done what they wanted to do and for them, it is cricket that is the only focus. For Pakistan, things were being done in anger. In frustration and in wanting revenge.
Any decision taken in anger is always problematic and that’s why Pakistan’s actions could have been counterproductive had they won the game. For the tournament also, an India win means nothing unpleasant happened last night in Dubai.
If you are India, this is your tournament to lose. You have a gun team and even if your bowlers don’t do well, you have the batting to win in a canter and vice-versa. A team that scores 100 in nine overs in a high-pressure game is simply a brilliant one. I, for one, will be very surprised if India don’t make the final.
And for Pakistan, it must have been a very long night. Just take your minds off the sport for a day. Think that you have two more matches to play and win. Focus on the cricket and not on trying to bring down fighter jets. It’s not your job and India have reminded you well enough.
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