Sydney: Wednesday at the Sydney Cricket Ground was all about d?j? vu. The first over, took us back to the 2015 ODI World Cup final in Melbourne. On the third ball, Brendon McCullum charged Mitchell Starc, and his stumps were rattled. The rest is history. Later, McCullum would say that he didn’t regret his charge.
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It makes for some wonder, if Finn Allen regretted the first three balls he played at the SCG. The first a well-timed boundary; the second a flick gone wrong and he survived the lbw decision via DRS review. The third, well, he tried to flick again and this time Shaheen Afridi had his man.
Why the regret, you ask? Isn’t this the way Finn plays his cricket? Isn’t this the way he smashed Australia on the opening night of the Super 12 stage? Isn’t this what gives New Zealand a power start? If it comes off, well and good. If it doesn’t, that’s the essence of T20 cricket, isn’t it?
Cynics would argue that Allen should have toned down a bit on this all-important day. Perhaps this writer is a cynic himself; it comes easy to those just watching. In the moment, with adrenaline pumping through, and so much at stake, neither McCullum nor Allen did anything wrong. Only, their team didn’t benefit. Australia did in 2015 and Pakistan in 2022.
It had one chance against this calculative, calm Kiwi line-up. Hit them hard in the powerplay and choke their scoring to a sub-par total. New Zealand too was wary of Pakistan’s fast bowling threat. For all purposes, this was a game of who blinks first. Allen did, Shaheen Afridi didn’t. New Zealand did. Pakistan didn’t.
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Each of Pakistan’s World Cup wins has been on the back of a mercurial fast bowler. If it were Imran Khan and Wasim Akram in the 1992 ODI World Cup, then it was Umar Gul in the 2009 T20 World Cup. Afridi is the key to Pakistan’s present and future. He showed as much in last year’s tournament in the UAE, only to get upstaged in the semi-final. It was time for a do-over, and he wrote a different script for his team on Wednesday night.
Talking of last year, that’s what the second d?j? vu moment alludes to. After New Zealand had posted 152-4, it still seemed a fighting total to the neutral eye. This Kiwi bowling attack has done well in this tournament, not even needing a sixth bowling option. On a two-paced, slow wicket, surely they could fight for the win at the very least?
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Maybe it was hope for the neutral eye, more than anything. Maybe it wasn’t such a neutral thought.
Albeit, any such thoughts vaporised quickly.
Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan batted as if still in 2021, a second time travel of the day for those watching. Last year, they had batted and batted in the UAE, and then batted more. Amassing almost 600 runs in six innings, they typified a new batting approach for Pakistan – calm, concentrated, assertive, and yet dominant.
Remember how India was thumped with a 152/0 scoreline? Well, they started in the same manner. 55-0 in the powerplay – the key battle on the day had been won. New Zealand had lost Allen early and then stuttered through its powerplay.
The Black Caps relied on Devon Conway and Kane Williamson to finesse some boundaries, if not bring out power hitting. It didn’t happen. 38/2 is not a powerplay score worthy for a tight semi-final.
Babar and Rizwan didn’t rely on power-hitting either. They hit nine boundaries in those six overs, but no sixes. Compare that to New Zealand’s who hit mere three fours, and you realize the game was won in those 12 overs. So much so, 3.1 overs into the Pakistan innings, and the duo had already smacked four boundaries. It was already too many for comfort.
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It put the onus back on New Zealand. They needed breakthroughs when none were forthcoming. The half chances weren’t sticking any longer, as they had done throughout the tournament. There were misfields and their fielding performance on the whole didn’t look recognizable. Slowly, but surely, Pakistan had broken down New Zealand’s resolve.
Mind you, this wasn’t a win for unpredictability over consistency. In the build-up to this game, this contest wasn’t in equilibrium. By right, Pakistan shouldn’t have been there. That’s what they do though, isn’t it? Bring complete mayhem to the table and let the other side deal with it, if they can at all.
New Zealand, with their calm demeanour and ever-smiling professional approach, were considered way too smart for such upsets.
In the end, though, it wasn’t the unpredictable Pakistan that won the day. Instead, it was a calm, collected approach, something we had seen amply in 2021. It was a matter of simply hitting rewind.
Sample this. In their 105-run partnership, Babar and Rizwan ran 33 singles, five doubles, and even a triple – that’s 46 runs running between the wickets. On a wicket where boundaries were difficult to come by, they copied what New Zealand did – 21 twos in the innings – and beat them at it.
Running hard between the wickets eased the pressure off Babar and Rizwan, instead, heaping it on New Zealand who slipped out of the game with every delivery that didn’t take a wicket. It took the Black Caps 52 balls to send one of the openers back, and you knew, Pakistan had put one foot into the MCG already by then.
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