Minutes after Pakistan pacer Akhtar Ayub had taken the last Indian wicket 11 boys in green knelt on the turf and bowed in the direction of the mosque just beyond the Premadasa Stadium. ‘‘It’s a miracle,’’ said Ayub after his match-ending 3/9.‘‘On days like these, it’s all supernatural’’, echoed his partner and man of the match Anwer Ali Khan. ‘‘Sub-consciously the ball swings, hits the deck and flies.’’Indeed, there was something decidedly inexplicable about today’s match. What was expected to be a high-scoring encounter produced just 180 runs in total; and what should have been an easy chase — 110 — saw India reduced to a shambles (six wickets down for 9 runs) before the late-order batsmen restored respectability.If it was the spinners Piyush Chawla (8.1-3-8-4) and Ravinder Jadeja (3/16) who took India to the threshold of victory, it was the Pakistan pacers who simply outdid them and helped their team retain the World Cup, the first time ever.In short, cricket at its best.Chawla showed that leg-spinners can be in their elements while wearing coloured clothing, and that he, at the tender age of 17, can take wickets with leg spin, the wrong ’un and the fastish flipper — and be very economical.Jadeja reasserted the emergence of left-arm spinners at Colombo as he re-enacted Martin Crowe’s Dipak Patel trick to take two wickets in the 5th over the game. Coach Venkatesh Prasad made special mention of him later: ‘‘Tight control over his flight and length, a very bright prospect for the future.’’Finally, though, it was the Pakistan pacers who swung the match — pun intended — in their team’s favour. When India were 9/6 the joke here among cynical Indian fans was that maybe the Indian batsmen had misinterpreted the under-19 concept and confused the age restriction with some kind of limit on runs.The Pakistan supporters were more ominous: Had Anwer, Jamshaid Ahmed and Ayub been bowling at Karachi, the series would have ended 3-2. The pace trio put on a brilliant display of quality of speed and swing. Anwer’s banana in-swinger to Rohit Sharma saw the ball deviating twice—in air, then after pitching, to remove the off-stump. Left-arm pacer Jamshaid Ahmed’s out-cutter to southpaw Ravikant Shukla pitched on the legs and darted in to shatter the stumps.And finally Akhtar Ayub getting Pinal Shah caught behind: The 140 plus ball climbed on the Indian keeper from a good length spot; all he could do was edge it to the ’keeper. India may have not lost the World Cup because of 15 minutes of mayhem but the long-term prospects for Indo-Pak cricket look good.
