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Journalism of Courage
Pace bowlers aren’t known for their stinginess, that’s the spinners’ realm. Slog overs aren’t what pacers relish, that’s the period of play the batsmen wait for. On Sunday, the Adelaide Oval witnessed an ODI oddity. Pakistan’s born-again pacers bucked all trends and enhanced the aura they’ve been flaunting since puncturing the formidable South African batting order. No one took a five-wicket haul, none sent the stumps flying; they did something less dramatic but much more rare and significant. Against Ireland, Pakistan pacers’ miserliness in the slog-overs took them into the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
Cricket Scorecard: Pakistan vs Ireland
In an era of unfair field restrictions, unguarded boundaries and gaping holes, Pakistan showed that the final 15 overs were not always about fours, sixes and 300 plus scores, even if the batting side had wickets in hand. Ireland’s 156/4 after 35 overs, finished at 237 in 50. Ireland had Manhattan dreams at the start of the powerplay, they would eventually settle for Mira Road.
First Rahat Ali and Sohail Khan conceded just at run a ball in the batting powerplay. In the final 10 overs, with one more fielder on the fence, Wahab Riaz would join his two pace-mates and Ireland’s run rate would be 5.4. These 15 overs made this a one-sided game. For the record, Pakistan batsmen reached the target in 46.1 overs. Sarfaraz Ahmed continued his dream comeback, scoring a 100 against a defeated Irish attack. But as Mishab-ul-Haq said after the match, it was the pacers who were responsible for Pakistan’s 7-wicket-win that took them into the quarter-final, where they will play Australia at the same ground.
PHOTOS: Pakistan seal last quarter-final berth at World Cup 2015
Of late, captains, coaches, pundits and trend spotters had been turning increasingly confident of that very popular World Cup 2015 theory. Four down before powerplay means 100 in last 10 overs and 300 on board, the cricket intelligentsia would confidently maintain. “Wickets, wickets, wickets… that’s the only way to check the run rate,” was the thinking cricketer’s essential argument, containing never an option. Like so many times in the history of this game, bowlers from the land where reverse swing and doosra were discovered arrived and debunked a popular premise.
Helluva pace
Pakistan’s four-pronged pace attack — Wahab Riaz and Rahat Ali are left-armers while Ehsan Adil and Sohail Khan bowl with their right hand — showed the power of variety and the effectiveness of ‘mixing it up’. The diversity of the multi-talented Pakistan bowlers overwhelmed the inexperienced Irish batsmen. The pitch map in the final stage of the Irish innings was like a tennis court after a training session with balls scattered all over the place, the speed graph akin to the ECG of a heart patient. For once, spraying the ball all over the place wasn’t deficiency. It was the game plan.
Pakistan pacers kept changing their line and length, altering their pace, sneaking in bouncers of varying heaviness; making it impossible for the batsmen to read their minds. Pre-meditation was impossible to pull-off with virtually no two balls in an over similar to each other. Taking a gamble wasn’t a workable ploy either, as there were too many variables. The house kept winning; the heavy rollers with heavy bats kept losing.
Towards the end of the 44th over, Ireland, 205/7, had hope. The tall, tattooed and full bearded John Mooney had just joined the big-hitting wonder-boy Kevin O’Brien. Since childhood they have been breaking window panes and big-hit records. Today, they played air golf and swatted flies in the pest-free air around them. Wahab boasted several tricks, like PC Sorcar at a birthday party. Without dropping pace he would change angles and alter his bowling areas. He had at least four types of bouncers — the one that rose sharply, the slower one, the in-coming head-hunting type and the away going imposter.
Watching Pakistan bowl was like being at those ‘variety entertainment’ shows. Misbah-ul-Haq had warned about this aspect of his bowling attack on match eve. Riaz, he said, was fast and skiddy. Sohail swings the ball early and Rahat swings it late. Further he would add how Sohail got good swing with the new ball while Riaz could get reverse later. By the way, he had also spoken about Mohammad Irfan’s bounce from good length, his seam movement and his awkward angles. Irfan didn’t play today, but in the quarters he will be at hand at the same venue making this a many-layered attack facing the Aussies. And to think, the only tattle surrounding Pakistan’s bowling before the World Cup started was about Saeed Ajmal.
Watching Wahab’s 8th over, 46th of the innings, summed up the game and how the diversity of Pakistan’s bowling had flummoxed the slightly unevolved and lesser tutored Irish batting. Ball 1: Effort ball on good length. Ball 2: Slow ball from the side of the hand. Ball 3: Express bouncer. Ball 4: Yorker length on the legs. Ball 5: Back of the hand spinning slow ball. Ball 6: Away going bouncer. One leg-bye was all the Irish could manage. It was the kind of over that messes the minds of batsmen and gives the fielding side a fillip.
Inventive minds
While the English-speaking commentators call this ‘clever’ bowling, ‘chaalaak’ describes it better. These variations are the result of inventive minds that have experienced cut-throat competition since very early in life. Playing tape-ball cricket on cement tracks you can’t afford to aim the top of off stump all day. To stand out on a maidaan witnessing scores of games, you need to be distinctly different. It could be the difference between making the Playing XI and twiddling thumbs on the sidelines. Survival is the mother of all inventions. On the brink of extinction in this World Cup, Pakistan’s survival instincts have kicked in.
