"Cricket is nothing, man."

“If life is a 100-storeyed building, Cricket is just two of those. 
Cricket is nothing, man. 
Your biggest challenge is staying alive.”

                                               Mashrafe Mortaza


                                    *********

Guptill is down. 

On the ground.
Shocked.

He just can't believe.
But he is trying to make believe.
The ball just rushed out of his hands. 

They all know he is a very good fielder. And he could've stopped it.

But he has to realise that he couldn’t.

Down there, he shakes his head.
In despair, he looks up.
First, at his left.
Then right.

From what he sees, it’s not just him.

They all are trying to believe.


                          ********

Kiwis, here, were the men in charge.

For most part of those 70 overs, they had it covered. There were moments of nerves. But when Bangladesh collapsed early, they were back on the wheel.

Southee was moving the ball.

It was hissing like a snake.
It flirted with pads.
It kissed edges.

It was all sharp. 

And pace.
And precision.

Certainly, there were a few bits in the pitch that Mortaza wanted to bowl first. However, his bowlers being not so used to these conditions, he couldn’t dig as much as he liked. Against this Kiwi attack, hunting down 265 was never going to be easy.

And it wasn't.

Southee hit all those lengths that Bangladesh had missed.
And in a blink, Tigers were 12/3.

When Mushfiqur lost himself to duality of bounce, they went another down.

33/4.


                       *********


Tamim Iqbal had once told Cricinfo what consistent losing does to a sportsman.

"You are chasing 250 and you are 50/3, if you don’t know how to win, you’d just go and panic out there.”

And today, they were 12/3.


                         ********


Mahmudullah hit a ball into the square.

Field was deep and wide. He knew he had to run two. But Shakib didn’t know how much he had to run.
He was way out of his crease when he realized that Mahmudullah had stopped. And he, too, had to.

Only thing he knew, he had to run.
And he had to keep running.

So, he ran hard.
His feet rose.
And he rode the ball.


                           ********


As the shine flew off, it stopped moving.
White duke softened.
And the duality of bounce faded away.

Southee couldn’t get another.
Milne lost his length.
Boult couldn't shape it.
Santner just contained.
And Williamson lost his own.

When none could find inroads, Williamson stepped up.
He bowled.
And they hit him.

Way out of the game!

                   ********


Against Shakib, it was a well thought choice.

He was just one away from his hundred.
Boult knew it.
He moved his field up.
And he pitched it short.

But Shakib had all the time to manage.
He got beneath it.
He kept his balance.
And then he lofted it way behind fine leg.

What a SIX!

He gets to his hundred.

But he doesn’t raise his bat.

Balls later, he walks off, shaking his head. Boult applauds him. With him, all Kiwis do. Every single person in the ground stands up for him.

Yet, he doesn’t raise his bat.

Minutes later, Mahmudullah gets to his hundred. It is his third in ICC events. He bows down.
Then he raises his bat.

Whole world is cheering.


                         *********


Out there, on the balcony, stands a captain.

He is not cheering.
He isn’t chanting.
Not even smiling.

He is just watching.
Emotions are flowing under his skin. But he is holding them.
He is the man who believes Cricket is nothing. It is just two of those 100 storeys.
To him, the biggest challenge is staying alive.


                         *********

And then, arrives the moment.

Mosaddek hits it hard.

It's a FOUR!

And Bangladesh have knocked New Zealand out of the Champions Trophy 2017.

As the ball kisses the rope and the crowd erupts in joy, the captain clinches his fists.

He raises his shoulders.

And he roars!


He did stay alive.

For eleven years and 356 days, he stayed alive to make it again.

This time, as a captain!

All that gone wrong with Misbah

Wherever you come across a "Misbah", go for 'em.

News media survive on crises.

Imagine all gets well. Things sail smooth. There is no Trump. No Modi. No Lady Gaga. No Meera. No Chris Gayle. No Shahid Afridi.

In such a world, what could be a news? 

Why would cameras click? 

Why would heads turn? 

And why would people rush to their supply lines aka TV remotes?

Nonetheless, something bad has to happen. Man has to bite dog. Elsewise how could newsmen justify their sole existence?

                        ************

Cricket is not just a sport any more.

Over the time, it has evolved into an entertainment industry. What if Amir hadn’t overstepped in Lords’? Or Afridi hadn’t chewed the white leather in front of 26 cameras? Or Shoaib Akhtar hadn’t hurled his bat at Asif? How many news hours could have gone boring as usual?

Someone must hit someone in the dressing room. Someone must be caught dancing in a night club. Or talking to a bookie. Or at least inviting girls to his hotel room. And once a year, a captain must resign for any possible reason.

That’s how a calendar year of Pakistan Cricket should unfold.

                    ************

But then, there comes a problem.

The team, that would keep offering spicy items and newsworthy fiascos, suddenly goes quiet. There are no more hints of infighting. No more shades of the dismal days gone by. No more news of corruption. No more blame games.

And the focus becomes Cricket.
Only Cricket.

And the man, who makes it all happen, is anything but glamorous. He is an ageing gentleman. He plays his game. He lives it. And he speaks nothing but it.

For a newsman, that must be annoying. For it would be hard to dig a news out of his offerings on press mics. His thoughts would be so coherent that to raise a question would be as hard as being him.

As being Misbah.

That is unlike a Pakistan Captain.

A Pakistan Captain should be a fireman on the field. And a fire-cracker off it. He should blame his team. He should vent out on his board. He should get in a tangle with his selectors. He should issue statements against his coaches. He should resign. He should take it back. And he should repeat it.

He should NOT be a “Misbah”.

                    ***********

Misbah, in his entire career, has played only Cricket.
He was never interested in any other games. He never responded to what people spoke of him. He was barely concerned with how many in the press box were on his side. And he instilled this into his men too. Like him, his team also got quiet.

To realise how bad his approach was for Pakistan, you have to be a sports reporter in Pakistan.

For a moment, put yourself in a reporter’s shoes. Your bureau chief needs a story. You have to bring one. To help you, whole universe should conspire and make something go wrong. And, eventually, your boss would be happy with you.

But out there, there are guys like Misbah who don’t let the universe conspire for you. Who make you sweat your blood, for one story. And they just bore you. In that case, you are left with no more than two options.

Either question your own existence.

Or simply question his.
And make a news.

No story? Let’s make one.
And that is a lot easier than questioning your own existence. Added benefit is that it brings ratings too. So wherever you come across a Misbah, you go for it.

                            *************

And that’s all that went wrong with Misbah.

Otherwise, we all know, he was a fine gentleman.

Two old-school warriors

Misbah and Younus familiarised Pakistan Cricket to what it never knew.

2007 was the cruellest year. 

A bit despicable too!

It changed Cricket forever. 
The gentlemen’s game bought a revolution. Bats got bigger. Strike rates hiked. Dot balls mattered. Bowlers switched from attack to mischief. Slower ones replaced deadly bouncers.

All above morphed a new phenomenon.

Terms like “containing” and “building” lost relevance. “Hit and Run” became the only notion of batting. Guys like Ponting and Dravid got fading. Stars like Gayle and Warner set rocking.

In the midst, two old-school gentlemen thrived.

                              *********

May 14th would be the last day.
No more Misbah. 

No more Younus. 

However it was, their era would come to the close.

When they took off, Pakistan had stars like Saeed Anwar, Yousuf, Inzimam, Ejaz, Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram. These two were hard to fit in. To make it, they were to toil hard.

Nearly two decades since.
And both are set to leave the game on a note higher than all their predecessors. They have outnumbered all the greats of Pakistan Cricket. They have scored more. They have won more.
And they’ve been acclaimed more.

                               *********

Why would a country like Pakistan need these two to reinvent Cricketing greatness?

Pakistan has a rich cricket culture. They have produced many a gentleman and some deadly fast guns. Two Ws were one of the most intriguing pace duo of all times. Anwar and Sohail were the finest opening pair of their times. Inzimam and Yousuf were true stars.
Even before all these, world had seen Kardar, Fazal, Hanif, Zaheer, Sarfraz and Imran.

In all of them, aggression was the key. A Pakistani star would be someone who would bowl really fast. Or bat extremely smart.
Yet despite being so richly talented, it was quite usual for Pakistan Cricket to be in the news.
Mostly for wrong reasons though.

Looking at the two old men, it is hard to find anything Pakistani.
Misbah is no Inzi. Younus is no Yousuf. They are quite average batsmen. On the field, they are even quieter sportsmen. They don’t create headlines. And they never get picked for selling beverages. Or seducing Shampoo buyers.

They just play Cricket.

                                 *********

As the norm goes, great sporting careers pick up in mid-twenties and breathe out in mid-thirties. Not that mid-thirties fade skills away, it is about age. Once one starts ageing, his attention spans start shortening.

Body declines.
Nerves cloud.
And a lazy end follows.

Misbah and Younus upset the established order. When they should’ve been sitting in some cosy commentary boxes, they were often found on the crease. Piling more runs, building more partnerships. And winning more games.

Not just they bent time and space, they also made it count.
Their old school gentle cricket produced more results than all the prior approaches. They have outclassed a lot of Pakistani greats in an altogether un-Pakistani fashion.

                                *********

Lack of fandom is bound to hurt a sportsman.
They do it for claps, chants and cheers. Cricket is for life. Fans fuel life into Cricketers.

The duo had fewer fans.
There were critics. 

More than anyone of their league got.

Yet, it didn’t hurt.
It only helped them.

For most part of their careers, they went unnoticed. No matter how good they played. Or how often they won. Little would be acknowledged. Frequently would they be told how ordinary they were. And how badly they had changed the culture of Pakistan Cricket.
It should be known for aggression and thrill.

They possessed neither.

A critique like that puts up a real challenge. For ageing sportsmen, it becomes the toughest. They are always questioned how far could they go.

Misbah and Younus wouldn't answer on press mics. 

They would respond on the crease.

                            **********

Before them, Pakistan were never known for stability and calmness. They were famous for collisions and collapses.
The duo changed all that. They stood for composure and control.

Over the years, they have proved their point.

Composure and calmness have borne more fruits than thrill and aggression. 

At least for Pakistan.

                               *********

Now that they are set to go, not much is left to be questioned off them. With their beautifully managed careers and nobly sustained characters, they have justified their greatness. Numbers shall remain the evidence.

Yet, the enormity of their numbers still remains a part. The real story is how they managed their careers not just through the most challenging phases of the game but also, unarguably, the darkest phase of Pakistan Cricket.

Years down the lane, when Cricket historians would read of the T20 revolution and the impact it created, they would certainly come across two noble souls.

When all the world rushed into new-school hit-hard madness, two old-school warriors steered one sinking ship to glory.
When Pakistan lost their home and hope, two old statesmen stood for it.


They won a lot more than cricket.
They claimed respect.

Respect!

An entity not so familiar with Pakistan Cricket.

If not for Holder himself

It could be Jason Holder.

If not for Babar Azam, it certainly could. 

And if not for those last seven overs. And if not for Carter bowling the last of those. 

If not for Walton overestimating himself and Lewis getting mixed up. If not for Hope losing hope and Jason Muhammed feeling so burdened. And if not for Nurse letting his ego so loose.

It could be Jason Holder standing out there as winning captain and maybe the man of the match too.

But if not for himself.

                                *******

When Ahmed Shehzad and Kamran Akmal fell in quick succession, Sarfraz’s words at the toss started mocking Pakistan. 320, he said he would like to put on. And they had lost both the openers inside of first ten overs. 

Very cheaply.

If Babar hadn’t restrained himself, they would’ve barely managed a hard fought 220 - at least a 100 less than what Sarfraz wanted to defend. Knowing that he couldn’t defend 308 the other day, the game would be over with a couple of hours to spare.

But Babar held on. Hafeez never got going. Malik didn’t want to. Sarfraz, the captain, couldn’t hold himself. Imad started ugly. All so but Babar hung on.

Holder was in charge for first three hours of the game. But in the next half, he looked like the dumbest captain WI ever produced. His bowling calculations were exasperated. His field settings very defensive.

Babar was waiting for his ton. Imad was the clumsiest ever.
Into the 40th over, it was unthinkable that Pakistan would even manage 250.

If not for Holder himself.

                   *******

Why would he bowl out all the spin before the last powerplay? Why would Gabriel not be retained for the last five overs? Why would he not go for wickets there? Why won’t he exhaust Babar and make him toil for that ton?

And why the hell would Carter bowl the last over?

At one stage, what could be a 240 to win, was now a 283 to win.

                  ********

But despite all that madness, this looked like a gettable total. They scored 309 in 49 overs only a day ago. Why couldn't they get 283 in 50 overs? They could. And they should. 

For it would be history. A series win against Pakistan, after 26 years.

Walton should fire today. He must be willing to make up for what he did in the last game. Lewis built a case of himself then. He should carry on. Hope is a smart batsman. He should work. Powell can do it any time. Carter can bat deep.

And then they have Jason Muhammad.

None needs be told who he is.

Isn’t that enough to conclude that WI are going to create history yet again?

                     *******

They saw off the first over. Amir bowled tight. He deserved respect. They offered him too. Cricketing instinct tells you they are well prepared today. It would be a smoother game. They might not need heroics like Jason Muhammad here.

Comes Junaid. He overdoes his lines and is punished. That over goes for 12 runs.

It looks WI are going to win it in style. They look like a calm unit here. They are respecting good balls. They are not sparing any bad one. They are on the go. They are a true WIndie side today.

But madness, as Joker put it, is like gravity. All you need is a little push. And that came from Sarfraz. Junaid was called for his second over. Walton was to face him. This was the method from Pakistan. Madness had to come off Walton’s bat.

That wasn’t the length to be lofted anywhere over on side. At most, it could be lofted over cover or easily played back. But Walton had no other ideas. Spontaneity lifted his bat even before the ball could pitch in front of him. Hassan did the rest.

All of a sudden, 282 starts looking like a big target.

The first ball Hope faced was keenly whipped off his pads into the fine leg boundary. That was the sexiest shot of the day. Hope offered hope. They are in no nonsense mood today.
But then, Lewis falls for no obvious reason. He wants to play it across the line but that one off Amir comes in sharply.

Again, in a blink, 282 starts looking like a huge target.

And then Hassan starts getting over their nerves. Carter falls. Powell falls. Even Jason Mohammed falls. They fall for their rush, a poor man's madness.

Here, 282 looks like a supernatural phenomenon. Even if all of them have another inning to trail it, they won’t ever be able to do it.

                  ********

There was something different with this Holder’s innings. He was soaking in. He was just watching the ball. He wasn’t thinking much. He carried some mystery around.
Jason Mohammed, their last and probably the only hope, fell but Holder didn’t seem bothered.

Now, 282 looks nothing more than 282.

Out of nowhere, Nurse appears and starts hitting the ball into gaps. None of his strokes a fluke. Either he misses it completely or he middles it like anything. In no time, he reaches 40.

Pakistan start to panic.

It looks if Nurse batted for another hour or so, he’d ruin all the good numbers Pakistan bowlers have managed thus far. And a record partnership to seal a record win for WI.

                                ******

But then, there are no more illusions left in the day.

Nurse falls.

He has gone. Joseph has joined in. And Holder is still there. He must be up to something. A player like him won’t hold bars for too long. There must be something surreal behind it.

It occurs that WI need 96 off the last 11 overs.
It is known that Pakistan scored exactly the same of last 11 overs.

Amir comes in to bowl. He has bowled five overs for only 16 runs. Into his sixth over, Holder would face up to him. Before that over, Amir was 5-1-16-1. When that over finished, Amir read 6-1-32-1.

That could turn you on. But only if you didn’t know that WI had only two wickets left. Maybe, they could’ve chased it down in some forty overs or so. Maybe, they could’ve all learnt from Jason Mohammed. Maybe, they all shouldn’t have tried to be Jason Mohammed.

                          ******

In the end, Holder gets his career best with the bat. But those numbers mean nothing while WI stand on the losing side, with overs to spare. Holder is the last man to fall. 

But the way it all unfolded, he actually was the first one.

He could’ve made history.
But if not for himself.


                 

                 

When reality bent

It was just another day of average ODI Cricket. All so usual. Pakistan were leading. WI were lagging. It looked nothing more than another ODI game being played for no apparent reasons.

But then shadows lengthened in Guyana.
A Trinidadian stood up.
And the game started breathing.

Sarfraz suddenly lost his nerves. His fields went wrong. His bowlers bowled nonsense. Ball started flying all across. A simple cricket game turned into an opera. Melancholy echoed for Pakistan.
And WIndies started dreaming.

Jason Mohammed turns out to be the man.

                      *********

Why they sent Hafeez ahead of Babar? None on the planet had the answer. He struggled a lot. With him, Babar struggled. And Pakistan clearly lost the sight of a hefty total.

But in the end, that 308 didn’t look bad at all. It could be defended easily with Shadab, Hassan and Amir. The weaker links in Imad and Wahab could be covered by Malik and Hafeez.

So they did.

And this, too, stands for a fact that WI have never chased even a penny above 300. And this is a batting line not just battling for World Cup qualification while all their stars sit in India for money.

Nothing goes their way.

They can’t win.

Nothinh more, nothing less. It is a simple reality.

                   ********

But they thought otherwise.

Ewin Lewis was the first one. He behaved. Asking rate kept climbing but him and Powell held on. They showed intent. Sarfraz had to try a lot. Even when Lewis threw his head away, Powell took charge.

For all that steadiness, when Jason Mohammed came to the crease, WI needed 153 off 107 balls.
Even if you wished, you won’t like to think it could be possible.

That it could be real.

                ********

In Cricket, there is a certain sense of occasion. Few have that. Good knocks from average batsmen come here and there. But there would be nothing particularly memorable in them.
Hafeez could be the best example here. He has 11 ODI hundreds to his name, but honestly I remember none of them. Razzaq has only three. I can recall all of them. And I can never forget one of them.

It might smell like bias but it actually isn’t.
Hafeez would score big when he needed.
Razzaq would score big when we all needed.
He would rise up to the occasion.

It's just that sense of occasion that separates big ones from fine ones.

I would often wonder at the modern culture of WI batting. Though it has won them two T20 World cups but it needs a lot of interpretation. In ODIs, you'd always find them lagging behind time. They'd like to lose ten wickets for 250 in 25 overs rather to bat on for 50 overs and chase a 300. They are just like that, always trying to get ahead of the game but falling to the occasion.

Last evening, they undid themselves. They came from behind and won the game in no time.

                     ********

Captains are tested when reality starts withering away. When a nobody comes out of a nowhere and mocks at 11 men in the field, it all goes fuzzy. Bowlers try to hide. Captains start shouting. Fielders look tired.

And the game slips away.

Sarfraz never saw it coming. He had no answers to it.

When Jason Mohammed started lofting the ball, Pakistan didn't even look like a team. None wanted to look at the ball. None liked to run after it. None wanted to believe in the real measures of time and space.

When he hit it over Hassan's head, he held the pose for a moment. It was picture perfect. At that moment, he looked fluent. But he was far from home. What he did different was that he believed in game piety. He put himself behind it.
As a result, he could flirt with Wahab. He could smash fuller lengths off Amir into the stands. He could move his feet and toy with Imad Wasim.

Every shot off his bat looked sexier than the earlier. The ball flew all across. He bisected fields like a mathematician. He put himself behind the game. The game embraced him.


                            ******

Besides the pitch, there are three Pakistan captains standing. Sarfraz looks lost. Malik appears confused. Hafeez suggests something. Sarfraz looks at Malik. Malik stares into the stands.

They all want to get back to reality as soon as possible.

                         *********

In the end, it's not Jason who scores the winning runs. Nurse hits it. He runs for two. Entire WI seems flooding out of the dressing room.
They all run towards Jason.
They have made history.
But the looks on those faces say even they'd take time to believe that it all was real.

How short they fell

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.

Brathwaite isn't watching it

Finally, WI have made a point.
Tonight, they proved they can help themselves. They can keep busy. And they can win it even if they don’t like to.

They showed they can be themselves under anyone. Even Brathwaite.

                           ***********

When Chadwick Walton collected the ball and hit the stumps, Imad’s foot was just about to touch the line. Walton was watching nothing but the daylight between the boot and the line. It had to be an ugly stumping case.

But with Walton it was so soothing, so charming.
He didn’t fall. He didn’t fumble. And he didn’t doubt himself. It looked as if he had been yearning for it.

It was pure zen.

Imad’s attempt was confusing, but only for himself. So late that by the time he could gather himself, Walton had finished him.
WI look busy today.
On a pitch where Sarfraz opted to bat first, they were 4-2 halfway through the very first over of the innings.

                    *******

Carlos Brathwaite’s men are smiling. Their smiles say they’ve waited for it. But more than anyone, Brathwaite has dreamt of it.

Those four sixes. In the last over of a World Cup final, facing a bowler as witty as Stokes, needing three sixes on six balls, wasn’t that a supernatural feat? We thought it was the rise of another WIndie great. But maybe.
But maybe WI should’ve dealt with Sammy reasonably. Maybe they should’ve let the team grow with Simmons. Maybe Brathwaite could’ve enjoyed himself before being assigned the job.

Couldn’t he be another Pollard or Watson or maybe even Sammy?
 
                      ***********

The ball is nearing the square boundary. Evin Lewis is running. Holder is running. They come close. So close that Lewis thinks Holder would like it. So thinks Holder.
The ball sneaks between.
Everyone is surprised.

Any other day, Brathwaite would’ve reacted to that. He is a captain. He has the right to do it.
But he doesn’t even stare at Lewis. He keeps his head down, just like Lewis. Had he reacted like before, it could’ve hurt his team.

He pushed none else but himself. He threw himself at every ball that came his way. He took a marvellous catch. He created a humanly impossible run out. He took wickets when they needed.
Eventually, he found himself being led by his team.

                     ********

The delivery that got Kamran Akmal at his best, was simply a low-key stupidity by Samuels.

Any other batsman would’ve played it on the back foot. It was a length that could easily be negotiated back for at least a single. Nonetheless it was awkward but more than it was Kamran Akmal when he got back to reality.

Samuels coming into bowl at that moment was no coincidence. There was a hell lot of reason behind it. When both Badree and Narine failed to get Akmal, WI needed a distraction.

It is just that element of wonder which can pull off the unthinkable.

Akmal didn’t expect this. He was hitting it all across. He could’ve easily got a hundred here. Nothing could defy him today.
At times, you don’t need a good ball to beat a set batsman.
You actually need a bad ball.

With Samuels, it wasn’t just bad. It was worse.
Kamran Akmal, on any other occasion would’ve got behind it safely. But it was that urge to hit Samuels, for he was the one who despised them the most. He knew he was in no position to play it. But he tricked himself into it.

Simmons takes the catch.

Akmal never wanted to walk off the field.

WI were playing something other than Cricket. They were being WI.

                        *******

When Lewis hit Shadab Khan for two consecutive sixes, it wasn’t for the match itself. They barely needed run a ball. But they needed a message to be sent.

Not to Shadab, Lewis sent it to the dressing room.
He exchanged no verbal blows. Unlike Samuels, he didn’t even look Shadab in the eye. He kept his head down. He kept himself busy.

There is Carlos Brathwaite sitting in the dressing room. He isn’t swinging the bat in his hands. Unusual for him that he is not looking anxiously at the scoreboard.

He is just enjoying himself.
He isn’t even watching the match.
It looks he had won it long ago.

Too good for Samuels

Why would he do that?

That was the primary reaction of a human mind relying on logic and common sense. For a moment, I wanted to believe it couldn’t be Samuels. No. He has rocked the day thus far. He can’t be short of perfection today. 

But for that ball.

As that last ball of Shadab’s quota kissed the outside edge of Samuels’ bat, it wasn’t his day anymore. Neither his side’s. 

The urge to dominate ended in despair for Samuels. And so for a side that couldn’t afford losing fifth in a row to Pakistan. 

                   ********

When Shadab bowled that short leg-break, Samuels kept his composure and slashed it into the square boundary. 

It was a gorgeous shot by a seasoned player of spin. There was an aura of command and authority in that shot. That was from those wrists that like to stand tall when it is really tough. It’s not a coincidence that Samuels has two world-cup winning performances to his name.

As the ball kissed the rope, Samuels came down the track. He looked Young Shadab in the eye. And then he pointed his bat towards cover region, “I’m gonna hit you there kid!”.

Samuels had to counter Shadab for WIndies couldn’t afford another young spinner inflicting their ego.

Shadab could’ve lost his nerve. Inexperience can cloud all the skills and wits. Being that threat from a guy like Samuels, there was merely an iota of hope that Shadab could save his skin. 

Imad bowls in. When the stroke off Samuels’ bat kissed umpire’s boots on its way down the ground, there was a scientific precision at work. Two balls later, Imad bowled with a mid-on well in place for a straight drive. Samuels didn’t even bother and went the aerial way. It landed around the sight screen. 

Next ball flew past cow corner.

Pakistan had lost their chance, if they had any.

                     **********

Next over started with Walton being undone by Shadab. 

When the umpire raised his finger, Shadab didn’t even look at Walton. He turned his face towards Samuels at the other end and looked him in the eye. It was the look of a bullfighter. 

After that Shadab bowled another 12 balls to Samuels. At his best, Samuels could score just 4 off them. 

Nine that he bowled to others yielded three wickets for five runs. 

           

                     ********

By the time Shadab came in to bowl out, Samuels was somehow convinced that he should respect Shadab. He was happy to see him off. It was just six balls. He didn’t want a drama there.

But it was just him.

Shadab wasn’t done yet.

Shadab never offers easy pickings. His unusual bowling action makes it hard to read out of the palm. He targets certain areas and tries testing variations. He uses his wrists subtly. It is his arm movement that helps him with minor speed variations.

Shadab pitched all six at a certain length on off. Some spun. Others didn’t. First five balls were played nicely but for 0 runs actually. Five dots in T20 are simply exasperating in any situation and here it was the man who had middled more balls than any other batsman from either side.

Samuels, somehow, kept his calm. He could’ve tried to swing it harder and higher. But he preferred to stay out of it.

Last ball of Shadab. Samuels knows it would be a wrong’ un. Shadab knew it too. He pitched it on off. Samuels got in the line. It spun and came back in. Samuels wanted to stop it with a dead willow. He knew it’d spin. But, he didn’t know how much would it.

It was a bit quicker for him. Off the Queen’s park turf, it didn’t turn as much as it should’ve. Samuels was stuck in. It turned a little and kissed the outside edge. Sarfraz completed the rest of formalities.

Shadab stretched his legs. He raised his arms. And then he shouted out like a champion.

A dejected Samuels looked down in despair as he walked off the Oval. 

He knew it was over. Not just him, also for WI.

What WI must know

Shadab Khan poses yet another challenge for WIndies

How to play Shadab Khan?
That were WIndies asking themselves the other night. Only six months ago, there was a similar question. They failed to answer that.
And it cost them a clean sweep.
In their favourite format.

That was, “How to play Imad Wasim?”
It took them 9 wickets and three games to figure out. The last over Imad bowled in that series went for ten runs. Before that, he had bowled 11 overs for 43 runs and 9 wickets.

Samuels told Pakistan that they could play Imad Wasim.
Yet, by that the series was over.

This time, they were prepared for Imad.
But they didn’t know there would be a Shadab Khan.

                               *********

Shadab’s first ball in international cricket was a top-spin.
A young bloke who jogs in like an offie and folds his arm like a finger spinner is actually a leggie. Walton knows that. So when he slashes his bat on the next ball, there is a clear hint of premeditation.
But this one isn't a stock ball. It goes the wrong way and hits his pad.

Gone!

Simmons knew it for a fact that if he didn’t attack this cunning debutant, he’d eat them up. He wanted to hit him straight away. But Shadab got the better of him. And another one goes down attempting to up the ante.

Next in the line is Narine who does nothing different.

The bloke ends his quota with a dream analysis.
Four overs.
Seven runs.
Three wickets.

He could’ve had four though.

                          **********

Six months of wait, to avenge a whitewash, end up in Shadab Khan winning man of the match award.

That must be painful. Having licked the dust, losing to a similar question adds to it.
WI have three games left to settle the score.

Can they do it?

Shadab has to bowl another 12 overs in the series. And WIndies now must be yearning to face him again.

It is a make or break series for Shadab.
But more than him, it is for his opponents. They would like to dominate him and he might enjoy hurting them. Or they might plan to negotiate him and he ends up on the losing side.

Either way, it is going to be a chilling contest.
What WIndies must know, is that Shadab is better than Imad.

Would Sarfraz turn the tide?

Sarfraz has to prove that he is the revolution Pakistan needed

Ahead of a long tour spanning three Tests and five ODIs, Pakistan were in Australia. Misbah was in Pakistan. He was to join them later. Before his departure, in an interview with Umar Farooq from Cricinfo, Misbah was caught desperate and a little bit angry over the current series of events. It looked like he was done with the mindset PCB was toeing.

Azhar Ali was appointed as a successor to Misbah in ODIs after World Cup 2015. He was purely a choice of Misbah. They say Misbah wanted Azhar be included in World Cup squad too but the selectors were not convinced enough. So when he was assigned the role on Misbah’s recommendation, he was doomed to receive what Misbah had been for five long years.

Cricket journalism in Pakistan is a weird phenomenon. It is quite human to have contrasting opinions. But in this part of the world, Cricket journalist find themselves in a self-assumed nobility. For instance, when Afridi played a brilliant knock in PSL and post-match he announced that he had retired from international Cricket, I exchanged it with a person next to me in Sharjah press box. His response was, “It all comes down to media. If media want him back in green, he’d be there in a blink.”
Not to mention that he himself was the “media” he referred to.

Misbah was the only Pakistan star to have survived a media trial that went on for almost a decade. Azhar, on the contrary, couldn’t resist that long.

When Pakistan lost four of their five ODIs against England, chairman PCB asked Azhar to resign. There was a guarantee too that he won’t be excluded from ODI squad if he tenders a resignation. Azhar, in response, stood firm and declined the offer. He knew he had a home series at hand against WIndies. And he whitewashed WI.

The debate should’ve been over.
But actually it strengthened.

A couple of days before Pakistan’s first game against Aussies, chairman PCB once again showed up and told us that Azhar wasn’t the captain Pakistan needed. In the background, there had been a continuous streaming of ruthless criticism over Azhar’s job ever since he took the charge. The plot thickened when Pakistan ended up on the losing side in Tests as well as ODIs.
We can ignore the fact that Sarfraz, the next boy prodigy of media, apparently had to skip the ODI series for his family business. We can also overlook the truth that he had a desperate run against Aussies in the Test fixtures. And we should not remember that he had been terrible there, with gloves too.

Azhar’s spot in the ODI side was so fragile that when he had to sit out of two ODIs following an injury, media started shouting out for Hafeez, the stand-in captain. We knew they wanted Sarfraz at the helm but more than that, they were desperate for Azhar’s exclusion. No matter how well he batted against all the odds, he shouldn’t lead Pakistan.

For he was Misbah’s choice.

At a dinner table in Lahore, I asked Misbah of his views on the hot topic. As plain and simple as himself, his reply was, “That’s not even a debate. Look at the upcoming World Cup and rethink your choices." What he conveyed between the lines should read, "For Pakistan, it's not just the captaincy. Real problems lie somewhere else."

A couple of weeks later, the most viewed news channel in Pakistan held a special transmission “Taakra”. With Wasim, Ramiz, Aqib and Akhtar on the panel, the debate concluded on replacing Azhar with Sarfraz. In their expert opinion, this change would start yielding goods for Pakistan.

It wasn’t about Azhar or Sarfraz.
It was all for the ideological identity Pakistan Cricket keeps searching for.

In less than a week, Azhar resigned. Sarfraz was appointed. Both were formal announcements for we knew eventually it had to happen.

Now that Pakistan are bound for the Caribbean’s, a lot more than Cricket is at stake. Seven off the ten games they play there are to be led by Sarfraz. Had Misbah not opted to go, it’d all be the lion’s share. For now, Sarfraz only has to prove his efficacy in shorter forms of the game.

Can he do it?

Visiting Caribbean’s has never been a picnic for Pakistan. Apart from Australia, this is the only place where they are are yet to win a Test series. Knowing what Pakistan under Misbah have pulled off, this should come as a surprise that even Misbah hasn’t succeeded in that.
But that’s not what Sarfraz has to deal with. His job is to validate all his supporters that have been campaigning for his captaincy over the last two years. He has to prove that he has got a good pick of a side. He has to ensure that Pakistan don’t slip in the rankings and keep their berth for World Cup 2019.

How practical is all that?

While Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Australia and WI have got some fruits courtesy young talent, Pakistan are also looking forward for the same. They got a good pool from PSL. They think they are good to go with it. They have compromised on Azhar too, their most reliable performer with bat in all conditions.

The onus is on Sarfraz now.

Bangladesh got their results for Mortaza led them. Same did Sri Lanka under Matthews. So for Smith’s Australia and Morgan’s England. But there is this thing that could trouble Sarfraz.
Sarfraz comes in here not just as a makeshift arrangement to reverse the odds. His arrival is more of an onset, a new ideology. From Misbah inspired and Azhar led conservatism to Sarfraz’s aggression, this has been a leap of faith for Pakistan. They believe they could’ve done better had they opted for aggression like Sarfraz’s rather than the calculated calmness of Misbah and Azhar. And their coach Mickey Arthur believes the same.

While we know that Sarfraz has a likeness for accelerating things with bat, we also must not forget that he has an overwhelming tendency of losing his nerves under pressure. Similarly, Arthur might have coached big teams like Australia and South Africa in the past but now that he is coaching a weak side, he often crumbles under pressure. We’ve seen both of them going crazy often when the shit hits the fan.
While this young Pakistan side could be more than capable with bat and ball but the international arena asks for more than just game skills.

With all the new talent in place, both Sarfraz and Arthur have to fill in for the mental strength required to behave like a team out there. Add to it the stakes such as direct spot for the World Cup, there would be a tremendous amount of pressure.

Can they stand it in unison?

We’d have to watch for it.
Because this new WI side is not like the one we met in UAE months ago. Nor is the new set-up at WICB anything like that post-Sammy and post-Simmons era.

Cricket must not stop.

At the moment, PCB is desperately trying to get out of the pit.
It’s been eight years.

Last time they played at home, Afridi’s century was the fastest ever. Anwar’s 194 was the highest individual total in an ODI. Asif was at his best. Akhtar and Yousuf hadn’t retired. Misbah hadn’t arrived. Amir hadn’t been banned. Their people would go and watch them play on their own turf.

Since then, Afridi’s record has been broken twice. So for Anwar’s 194. Amir got banned, served five long years and got back. Asif is yet to see another day. Younus became their best ever Test batsman. Misbah came, conquered and is set to go.

But International Cricket is yet to return.

When the questions surround the efficacy of a PSL final in Lahore, there is a fair bit of logic and common sense behind them. How handy would the outcomes be?
There are reasons to believe that it might not achieve what it is meant to. It might not even help Pakistan’s image across the cricketing circles. In the end, it could be a futile and silly exercise.

But PCB finds it so tempting that they think they need to give it a go. Could be it reassures themselves and their people - that they can do it.

Practicality is not a challenge here.
But feasibility is a big one.

Despite all the necessary evils of the post 9/11 developments, for years they enjoyed cricket in their own grounds. No one even thought of the remote possibility that one day, all this would evaporate. That Gaddafi could be the epicentre of an antagonism, none would believe.

In the aftermath, PCB didn’t help itself.
Why would someone else then?

A year goes by, and Lords happens.
Giles Clarke, the voice they needed the most to spread the word and address Pakistan’s isolation at ICC, refuses to greet Amir who was the player of the series.

The pit gets darker and wider.

Over the last few years, however, there have been consistent attempts by PCB to reincarnate a belief that Pakistan could host International Cricket like others do. Even though the returns didn’t meet the targets but it is fair to say they tried a lot.

What failed them?
There were quite a few external factors that they were in no position to control. Obviously, they couldn’t tell Obama when to pull out of Afghanistan. And, they couldn’t convince Modi to sit well with the CPEC. And also they couldn’t assure Mumbai attacks issue be resolved on table.

Every time, an India Pakistan series is in the offing, Mumbai 2009 blocks visions.
Pakistan always want to play India. India never wants to. This inflicts millions of dollars on PCB’s pockets. But BCCI is never short of excuses.

PCB, under Sethi, has posed itself well. In 2014, they also arranged a tour for Ireland. They were all set to turn it on. But one terrible night, Karachi airport came under attack. Ireland refused to visit them.

Zimbabwe asked for a lot. They paid it. Zimbabwe toured them. The opening match against Zimbabwe was not a low-key game. Not just a match, it was a celebration across the country. They thought they had made it. But they didn’t know a bomb had to explode just outside Gaddafi.

No one has toured them since.
No one except Zimbabwe has visited them in eight years.

Their grounds stay empty. Their wickets lay barren. Their stands echo silence.
Out of this desolation, they seek a revival. And don’t forget; they are desperate for one.

PSL has done all the yards for this one final to be held in Lahore. They have spent nights carving it. FICA came in their way. They sought Giles Clarke’s help again. His visit helped a lot. Only three weeks ago, a PSL final in Lahore was the likeliest. People were asking for special passes even before the inaugural ceremony could begin.

Now, the pit isn’t that dark.
There is a hope, a bleak line of white light approaching the tunnel.

But suddenly, it happens again. Once again, someone loses his mind. Once more, the lively and cheerful Mall Road records a carnage. Once again, they are in the middle of nowhere.

In the premise of disaster stands tall PCB, a Cricket Board that wants to convince the world that - Cricket must not stop.

A flash of genius

Can this guy bowl three dots in the last over of a narrow chase? That too in a T20 game.

He doesn’t even look like a fast bowler now. There was a time he would normally bowl at 150 kph. But now he is 37. Actually today he got 37. Now he walks like a lower order Zimbabwean batsman.

You know he failed to defend 15 in the last over of an important ODI game and Pakistan lost the series. And here, he has to save last 5 off last 6 in a T20 game.
Anwar Ali is facing him. He can hit the ball. On the other end stands Roussow, who is amongst the top scorers of the season.
Can Sami win it for Islamabad?

How many of us would think so?

He runs in. Anwar is ready to finish it on the first ball. He doesn't want to play the rest. Sami knows it. He bangs it short and drags Anwar towards his off stump. Anwar swings it hard and fails to meet the pace of ball. He is no deVilliers.
But he can finish it on the next one.
Next one is no different.

Now they need 5 off 4.
Third ball reflects a change of plan. Sami changes the line but keeps the length. Anwar desperately meets the ball and manages an awkward stroke. He rushes towards the other end. Mid-on gets the chance to run him out. But Badree doesn’t look interested.

It should’ve hurt Sami.
But he doesn’t even look at anyone. He thoughtfully walks towards Misbah. There is a chat. By the looks of it, it is safe to say that Misbah wants him to bowl almost the same stuff to Rossouw.

Roussow too has no cure for it. He swings it hard. And misses.

Now, nobody knows how much Quetta need off how many.
Sir Viv is shown on the big screen. He is smiling. But his face tells you that he knows it is one of those days. He is just trying to convince himself.

Sami is ready to bowl the fourth one. Suddenly Misbah calls him. A bit of chat there and we see Smith is being removed from Mid-on and sent to Long-on.
Why that?
What to follow?

Sami runs in and offers no width this time. Blocked in his own feet, Roussow strikes it towards the long on. There, Smith is quick in returning the throw but Anwar is not enough so. He is run out.

Quetta have cursed themselves. Sami has made it happen. The team that dominated the game in last two hours is on the brink now.
They need two off the last ball.

Can Roussow do it?
Nine out of ten times you’d say he can. Tenth time it'd be against Sami.
Sami runs in. Roussow knows he needs runs to win it. But the last five balls have shattered his nerves. Sami cramps him for room. Again he fails to adjust to pace and it goes straight to Misbah at mid on.

He collects it cleanly. Sami receives the throw at bowling end but he fumbles. So does Roussow. He knows he is over the line but he forgets that they aren’t yet. Perera keeps begging for the second.
But Roussow believes it’s over.

What were you expecting five minutes ago?
Misbah shouts loud for Sami. They rush in from the square. Sami is their hero of the night. He is the man on camera now. They all are behind him. He is smiling.
They defended two off the last ball.
They pulled off a magic.

And here, I am thinking why this cricketing brain played only 36 Tests and 87 ODIs for Pakistan in a career spanning 16 years?

He hasn’t retired yet. But another chance seems unlikely now.
He has missed many of those already.

Kings didn't mean it

Karachi Kings needed to mean something.
And they turned out to be nothing.
They relied on big names. They should’ve sought good combinations but they believed otherwise. By now, they must be thinking the same.
But apparently, they aren’t.

Look at the squad. Aren’t they a good T20 mix?
The highest run getter of the format is opening for them. A composed young lad is accompanying him. There is a fine captain in the greatest batsman of this era.
You have Malik who can do equally well in all three departments. There comes Bopara. He can play some good strokes. And he can bowl a few good ones. And what about Sohail Khan? Not only he can hit the ball cleanly but he moves it too.

Amir is still a good T20 bowler. And he can smash it too. Usama Mir might have the least exposure but he can handle pressure. He’s shown it.

Look Imad is there.
But, is he?

Nonetheless, a strong batting line is complemented by a good mix of spin and pace. What else you need to mean something?
But’s what you see from a vantage point. Details are not that rosy.

The most hyped player of T20 is not there. His attention spans have been flashy.  He’s always found short of movement. And he has been tried more than enough. He should’ve been dropped long ago. Yet, they are expecting a one-off miraculous innings from him.

Pollard rarely gets runs. He doesn’t bowl anymore. He is not even a good fielder. But since, they’ve spent a lot on him and since he is a big name, they won’t let go off him.

Their two of the most important batting slots are misfiring. They can’t open well. Neither can they finish. And the consistent failures of these two big guns have put extra load on all others. Their batsmen get poor starts. They can’t hold it together until the 15th over. And their tail is not getting any support from Pollard or even Imad.

Sanga, once a wise captain, now looks frustrated. Can you believe he has forgot all that he knew of his gloves only in last two weeks?
Now, he makes errors in field placings. He gets confused. He mistimes the all important switch of pace and spin.
His batters don’t help him.
He fails to help his bowlers.

His ship is rushing towards a glacier and he can’t do enough to stop it.

And then you have theatrics as if all these things failed to amuse you.

A strategic time-out is called for. But Sanga didn’t ask for it. He was signalled from the dressing room by his old partner Mahela.

And as the team surrounded Mickey Arthur, there was a moment.
Beside the wicket, there is a team meeting. Thus far in the game, Karachi have fared miserable. And Arthur was there to calm things down. He had to tell them to hold their nerves. He is surrounded by his XI. He is talking to them. But then the camera man finds a good shot and then we see he’s talking to Sohail Khan.

But he’s not talking.
He’s shouting.
He commands Sohail to look into his eyes. And then you can’t hear what he says. Even Sohail can’t. Yet, he does. But his face tells otherwise.

In next over, Sohail produces two wickets. Two make three. Karachi look in command.

But then, Sohail’s next over is completely out of place. The guy who produced two wickets in the previous one, is now as senseless as the entire Time-Out meeting.
Again, Karachi start losing their nerves.

Shoaib Malik bowls a very good length on middle stump. Roussow cramps himself for room. He doesn’t find the ball. Ball gets itself to the edge of his bat. It flies from the vacant slip region.

Sanga doesn’t even sigh.

Malik looks in disbelief.

Out there in the square, a guy runs behind it. He is running. But he isn’t going behind it with a hope to keep his team alive. He is just running for himself, to stop himself from one more error.

He manages a lazy dive, collects the ball and throws it back. The camera zooms in. This is Sohail Khan.

Behind the stumps, a lost face tries to hide behind those big white gloves. He looks into the sky. Then he rolls his eyes in disbelief.

It appears he’s asking himself, “Why am I here?”

A “Part” of Arthur that went Wrong

     “A part of me wants to prove Cricket Australia wrong.” 
That was Mickey Arthur, ahead of Pakistan’s second Test whitewash in almost eight years, their first coming merely two weeks ago. 

They were going to fight conditions, where they had never won a Test series ever.
And this was Mickey Arthur or, "at least" a part of him, quite "willing" to prove his ex-employer wrong.

Surreal, as Arthur termed it then, was the experience not only for himself but also Cricket Australia as well as Cricket Pakistan. Throughout the series, the stronger team kept struggling with their choices for new ball. And the weaker team kept capitalising on them. Eventually, one of the most fragile teams in Aussie history whitewashed one of the most challenging sides, in Pakistani history.

Only a couple of months ago, Pakistan were the best Test side in the world. That mace? That was just a formality. The things, they overcame to rule the world, were bigger than the mace.

In stark contrast, Aussies were bruised by the shocks of nearly three whitewashes, 5 Test losses in a row. Steve Smith was feared heading towards a fate like Kim Hughes’ if not worse. He was called home, skipping half of their tour to Sri Lanka, only to rest and get prepared for a short tour to South Africa. There too he looked as miserable as in his last series against Sri Lanka. Another whitewash. 

But Pakistan, quite unexpectedly, struggled more and gifted almost two and a half wins. The only half left out of the package could be attributed to misfortune, rain and Sarfraz’s gloves.

What went wrong?

Question Misbah first. 

He was in control, in the very first session of the tour. Two bad sessions followed. Next morning, he was again in control, only until each Wahab and Amir started pushing for five-fors. After that, Misbah was never in command until their second attack- coincidently, without Amir -at Sydney. But, that was too little, too late. 

If we speak of captains’ command and authority through the series, Misbah was not even half of Smith. He deserved to lose. 

Batting?

Misbah failed to inspire. His struggles, if not reversed by Azhar, could have produced the worst stats for Pakistan batting in Australia. 
Azhar played exceptional. Sami was poor. Babar was a failure. Younus, as always, did better than expected of him. Asad played two good innings.  Sarfraz, as ever, remained a mystery. Sharjeel did what he had to. Tail was almost as good with bat as bad they were with ball.

Let’s question bowling. 

Amir was a disappointment. He contained well, but lacked the right tools to get wickets. And, fortunately, he had no dropped chances off him to build a case this time. Apart from Gabba, he was lost all the time. He went wicketless in his last two games. 

Wahab? He did a Wahab until he, somehow, convinced himself to follow Misbah. At Sydney, he bowled Misbah-esque rather than Wahab-ish. Yasir lacked flight and got the bashing of his life. As he claimed he was responsible for weird fields at Melbourne, Yasir was found more doubtful of himself than his captain. 

This was, probably, Pakistan’s first series since I-don’t-know-when where they tried three different new ball combinations for three consecutive games, against the same opposition. Rahat looked short of confidence, at Gabba. He was replaced by Sohail, who turned out to be what he already was, a second innings failure. 

Now let’s question the guys who are sent with the squad to help them out.

Azhar Mehmood, especially hired for these two tours across the Tasman, was supposed to help his bowlers with the lengths required for these conditions. He was selected with a view to his all-round experience on this sort of wickets. He proved to be anything but helpful. His bowlers struggled with ball, and surprised with bat. He should have been sent along as a batting coach instead. 

Grant Flower, the batting coach? 
He did okay. Azhar Ali paid off. Sami Aslam couldn’t. Babar didn’t. Batting collapses were fewer than expected. This, however, remains a mystery if Flower was the one helping our bowlers’ batting or was it Azhar Mehmood!

Steve Rixon, the fielding coach? 

He should fire himself, with immediate effect. Nothing more.

Mickey Arthur?

Arthur joined Pakistan ahead of their toughest challenge in two years. As history suggests, flying off to England has never been an easy-go-lucky ride for Pakistan. But they successfully drew the Test series. Then, they lost 4 ODIs in a row and won the last one, also the only T20 game.

Arthur’s next series was against WIndies. Pakistan lost almost two Tests but, statistically, ended up 2-1. Their current run suggests it could have easily been 2-2, had there been one more in the schedule. 
Since Arthur joined them, Pakistan have won all their T20 games, lost 4 of the 8 ODIs excluding Ireland, and lost 8 of their 12 Test encounters. Going into this series, Arthur had 3 successive defeats to his credit.

We need another para. Actually, we might need more than just one.
Ok.

For a cricket coach, of our times, the numbers are not encouraging, if not alarming. But more than his team’s current run, Arthur was concerned about a “part” of him that wanted to prove Cricket Australia - his ex-boss – wrong.

Arthur’s stint with Australia was nothing but dramatic. He was sacked by Australia in June 2013, well before the expiry of his contract that originally meant to end after World Cup 2015. Clarke XI were in England. They were only three days away from their practice match against Somerset, ahead of a tough Ashes campaign. Three days before the warm up game, Cricket Australia had to fire him. 

Once again, he had fallen out with a Cricket board. 

If not for Arthur, that drastic step was something unprecedented for Aussies. He, though, had a previous example to his credit. In 2010, he fell out with Graeme Smith. Though he blamed CSA for his resignation from coaching, just ahead of their tour to India. But it was more than that. His resignation, per se, was not a call of conscience, but a reaction to his employer’s unwillingness in continuing with him.

With him in-charge, Proteas reached the top spot in rankings. But later, both Australia and South Africa suffered Test whitewashes plus poor runs in ICC fixtures. His job, with Aussies, witnessed more controversies than his previous one. Homework saga was just enough to define his suitability for a coaching job. 

No wonder Aussies fired him.

Then why Pakistan hired him?

For Pakistan, his appointment came as a result of a rift, between Afridi and Waqar Younis. It was nothing else but Deja-vu’. Like 2011, once again two past teammates failed to make peace with each other and a miserable show at World T20 in India broke all hell loose. Reactions preceded firings and a desperate hunt led to Arthur’s appointment.

Arthur was not a well-thought choice of Pakistan Cricket Board. There were many favourites at home. But the formulation of a consultant panel, comprising Wasim Akram and Ramiz Raja, meant nothing but a polite refusal to all the favourites. Aqib Javed withdrew. 

Wasim and Ramiz just wanted to appoint a foreign coach. Arthur was the only choice. His appointment was as desperate as that.

When he joined, Pakistan had a pathetic T20 side. No different were they, in ODIs. But in Tests, they were unbeatable.
Now, after eight series- across all formats -with him, Pakistan end up being a good T20 side, an average ODI side, and a pathetic Test side. With three different captains, he has produced three different results. However, if we remove captaincy out of the equation, it is evident that his stint has helped Pakistan in shorter formats but harmed them in the longer format. 

It remains, nonetheless, debatable that WI were a weak opposition in UAE than Kiwis or Aussies in their home conditions. While it paints tougher challenges for Test side, it also hints that most of Pakistan’s wins in shorter formats have come against a weak opposition, in favourable conditions. 

But this run of Misbah XI is quite unprecedented. The recurrence of defeats, so consecutive and so weirdly fashioned, is alarming for Pakistan. 
Misbah, a hero only months ago, is the biggest villain now. 

Something must have gone terribly wrong. 

Going down under, forecast for Pakistan wasn’t statistically, or historically, encouraging. But it wasn’t this bad either. They were not favourites. But neither Kiwis nor Aussies completely wrote them off. 

But it turned out to be sloppy. What used to be quite a disciplined attack under Waqar’s watch, was now the most inconsistent attack. What used to be a reliable batting line-up, has gone more unpredictable. What used to be a close unit, now seems withering, if not “falling apart”. 
This campaign down under has, unexpectedly, provided us more concerns regarding bowling than batting. Fielding is no different. Discipline was the tagline of this team under Misbah, only until a couple of months ago. But now, that too is off, just like many other tags.

Why Pakistan did this? Did they fight it? Or they just helped it? Is it a reliable team any more? With Misbah just an official announcement away, what is the future of this team? In what direction are they heading?

And what about Arthur in all this?
Arthur might have helped Proteas to the top spot in Tests and ODIs but there is little evidence that it was he, who shaped a team out of nothing, not Graeme Smith. For years, Smith was his buddy before he, eventually, became the reason behind his firing aka resignation. 

Australia, initially, got it wrong but reached the right conclusion and sacked him, as hurriedly as if they needed to set an example. 
Here is how Reuters summed it up, the day it made news.
“Mickey Arthur has been sacked as coach of Australia just two weeks ahead of the start of the Ashes series against England, after a series of poor results and a string of disciplinary issues in the squad.”

That’s what he, actually a part of him, wanted to prove wrong. We need no more words on how it unfolded.

Arthur’s induction into coaching slot, so far, has brought Pakistan more discomfort and less hope. He is what he shouldn’t be, a strict commander. And he isn’t what he should be, a good cricketing brain. His choices are yet to prove themselves good enough. Selection of Babar Azam, in Test side, hasn’t gone well. Nawaz, picked prematurely, hasn’t been tried enough. Irfan’s immediate send-off from England was a healthy gesture but Sohail and Sami’s, even before Sydney, was a poor call. 
Before landing in Australia, he spoke to an Aussie radio host and compared Sharjeel to Warner. He also compared Babar to Kohli. Why? And even if he had to, he should’ve made his point after extracting something out of the two.

As for approach towards the game, he is more like Sarfraz, less like Azhar, and least like Misbah. He advocates for attacking brand of cricket. So does Sarfraz. That's debatable.

The notion of attacking cricket, it can be statistically proved, has never sat well with Pakistan, at least in last two decades. While Arthur is all for attack, Misbah was all for defence. Misbah’s approach has yielded more for Pakistan than Arthur's that has been, pragmatically, proven wrong long ago. We might write it off but, recently, there has been a fair bit of confusion, in Pakistan camp, on how to play. Their captain is all for defence while their selector and coach speak high of aggression. And the youngsters know who they need to follow, if they need to retain their spot.

As a result, batting collapses have become frequent. Bowling disciplines have gone highly out of proportion. That has to be, deep down somewhere, a clash of two contrasting ideologies.

Here is how Arthur plans his future. He supported Azhar ahead of a clean sweep against WIndies. But, with Azhar showing improvement in his decision-making as a captain and hitting the form of his life, Arthur surrealistically started endorsing PCB’s liking for Sarfraz across all formats. 

Like all, Pakistan seek domination in all forms of Cricket but Arthur's history makes him “the least suitable man” to help them with their quest.

He speaks a lot, and acts even more. Remember that “F” word mantra, on camera, when Irfan strained? And that nonsense at Dubai, when Narine went after Hassan Ali in 2nd T20I? He is a guy, who creates more headlines than game plans. He assigns roles and exercises punishments. But he cannot come up with solutions. 
If Pakistan need improvement on how they play Cricket, they need someone capable of something more than just shouting and reacting.

Halfway through the Australia series, Sheharyar Khan spoke of an evaluation of all coaches, at the end of this tour. But he exempted Arthur of the ordeal. Probably, he needs a bigger sample size to judge him and wants to test him more. 
Or maybe, a part of Sheharyar also wants to prove someone else wrong.