WI definitely had their plans. Put in to bat first, on a wicket that offered little for the ball, they should’ve got to a good total at first. What they managed in response, was a disjointed effort.
Walton seemed at his best. He used his wrists like a tennis ball player. His strokes were lovely. The way he was going, he should’ve dominated himself. But he thought otherwise.
He was nowhere near the ball yet he opted to go over Shadab’s head.
And in the process, he lost his own.
Samuels had another score to settle. This time, it was Wahab who got him last time. He was pretty much composed against Wahab though. He hit him twice over the rope.
Could it be his day?
If not for Simmons, it could be.
When it banged into his middle stump, he wasn't even looking at the ball. On other occasions, he would’ve played it through the line. But here, he wasn’t even ready to face the ball. That wrong call was on his mind. Not his fault but even if he blamed himself for Simmons not making his ground, he should’ve made up for it.
Rather he lost his own too.
In the end, only Brathwaite stood up to the situation. He hit the ball quite nicely. He showed them all how to put yourself behind the game, how to bat for the team.
But he was, as they say, too little too late.
**********
There was some real context to Ahmed Shehzad’s blistering knock.
A couple of years ago, he scored a century in T20I. It was his first. A day later, he was talking to the press. He sat there like a boss. Well, there is nothing wrong with being bossy when you’ve got a hundred, but it helps only if you can keep going like that.
But here was a certain sense of overconfidence. When he had his say, I thought to myself, “He won’t even get to the double figures in next game.”
And he didn’t.
He is that kind of a player. Tonight, he knew he had to score if to keep berth for the ODI side. And if he didn’t, certainly someone from the bench would replace him.
And he reacted very well.
He hit the ball when he needed. He cut it well. He read lengths precisely. And he also dealt slow bouncers keenly. With a boundary, he got to his fifty. He should’ve known that his job wasn’t over there.
With required rate way below run a ball, he could’ve easily taken Pakistan home. He could’ve played the series winning shot. It’d have spoken of his game sense.
But, the moment he raised his bat to welcome the applause, for him it was over.
Very next ball, he gifted his wicket.
That wasn’t an unusual length or an unplayable line. But it was his ego that hurt his soul.
He watched the ball only when it had hit the stumps. Everything before that was an illusion. The moment he got to his milestone, he was no more in the real world. He got high on himself.
However harsh it may sound but this was the real Ahmed Shehzad. Stuck on the off while the ball pitched miles behind him, he didn’t even lament himself. He walked calm. For he had got what he needed.
*********
There was some real energy in the field when Pakistan needed just 7 off the last two overs. Holder thought he could drag it into the last over.
WI believed they could create a drama here. It would become a Shakespearean theatre. All the batsmen would die for no obvious reason. And out of nowhere, Brathwaite’s men would turn victorious.
They were planning a lot. Fields were being shifted. Each ball took hours to be delivered. First of those missed Sarfraz’s bat. It hit him in the waist line. But he ran for a single. Next one was played with a straight bat but only towards mid off. Malik couldn’t run.
For a moment, there was a blink of belief in WIndies.
Jason Mohammad ran in from square. The ball was nearing fine leg boundary. He ran hard and dived on it. Somehow, he managed to stop it. But he wasn’t clean. It should’ve been only a single if he collected it. But for that effort, Malik had ample time to make it home after two.
It might not have made a difference even if he collected it and stopped the second run. But for a moment, it reflected how keen were WI to win and how short they fell.
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