Broken, not Shattered

PAKISTAN LOST, yet again. Yes it is not something new, not very fascinating and certainly not surprising. What it is, it is DISAPPOINTING!

The entire match can rightly be summarized with that one delivery from Wahab Riaz to Dhoni which found its outside edge and flew very comfortably to the right of our ONLY wicketkeeper (in a nation of 170 million people, having more than 45 official domestic cricket teams besides the regional teams and dozens cricketing clubs) Kamran Akmal who had to stretch, not only his arms (which were actually glued to his underarms), his legs (which were burried well deep in the ground) but his overweight and rigid body itself. Now, that is just too much of an asking from Kamran, who actually defied all odds and did manage to dive in and get his spongy slippery fingers to the ball yet barely leaving the comfort the ground and eventually DROPPING IT. It is not something new, not very fascinating and certainly not surprising. But indeed, very DISAPPOINTING.

Pakistan were certainly not the favorites entering into Mohali, it was India right from the point when they thrashed Australia in the quarters and Ponting commenting that "India will beat Pakistan in the semi finals". However, the Pakistan team had managed to instill a glimmer of hope within themselves and the overly supportive nation by their unified performances that they might actually pull this one off. But that glimmer was quickly squashed when the two of  their most experienced players (Younus and Misbah) succumbed to pressure and spilled out regulation catches of the highest run scorer in the world (which probably Mr. Gilani would have caught easily even if he was trying to run away from them).

That precisely was the difference between the two sides. India, a batting superpower, and Pakistan, a lordship of bowling, showcased their talents and strengths exuberantly and efficiently. What was going to count was not the dew factor rather the fielding. And unfortunately, it was Pakistan that displayed a poor show in that department. Certainly the Indian fielding was not very estatic and inspiring, it was the Pakistani fielders that could not really cling on to the occassion.

The last time Pakistan dropped two catches of a single batsmen early in the innings, they ended up chasing 302 (vs. Newzeland in WC 2011). Similarly, the way Mohali wicket started to absorb the bounce and grip the ball, chasing 261 was no less than chasing 300.

There have been many people critising Misbah's innings (56 runs off 76 balls) and that his slow approach early in the innings led to the eventual doom. Rather, it was his sloppy fielding that cost us the match. And to pile on the agony, Younus did nothing even close to Misbah's attempt to the least. Giving a chance to Sachin to go on and make his 100th 100, he did little to make anything of the Pakistan's chase

With everything said and all the fingers pointed and the guilty accused, we should not take any credit away from this distrauted team for rising through the ranks admist the ruins and the conspiracies. They have done sufficiently well, efficiently too, to play a WC semi final losing their two main strike bowlers (Asif and Aamir) and an openning batsmen (Salman Butt - though he's more of a BUTT(ocks)) and the possibility of playing that very semi final in Lahore. Our team has given us a reason to believe in them. They had not only the world's greatest batsmen fall four times in a single innings with ease but also the possible man-of-the-tournamnet (Yuvraj) bowled out on a GOLDEN DUCK infornt of his home crowd. That was sufficient for them to make a significant and quintessentail statement that we should never be ruled out of any competition even if we are stripped off of our spears and shields. This is Pakistan Cricket and lets believe in them.