Redemption at last

Redemption at last— the second edition of the T-20 World Cup can be brilliantly summarised in these three worlds. For a team which was just a match away from exit in the opening round, scripting a fairytale story and winning the World Cup was romance of the highest order. Life had come full circle for most of the members of this very talented team who have now buried the ghosts of their agonising defeat at the hands of India last year.

With a comprehensive victory over the tournament favourite Sri Lanka, Pakistan has once again proved its unpredictability as a team. With a patchy start to the campaign, their form during this tournament peaked when it needed to. And as such they emerged champions rising from the ashes, thereby giving much needed solace to their millions of countrymen who have been engulfed by the vice of terrorism. For a country which is for all intents and purposes a failed democracy, this victory would do much to lift the sagging spirits of a disenchanted nation.

There has been an amazing co-incidence in the fact that the man who masterminded Pakistan’s glorious victory in the World Cup of 1992 has once again been responsible for scripting yet another glorious chapter in his country’s cricketing history. Inthikab Alam deserves a special mention for his ability to guide a team which has practically played no cricket for over a year now. The captain of this team Younis Khan has emulated his great predecessor Imran Khan by announcing his retirement from T-20 Cricket after winning the World Cup. Very few cricketers have been lucky enough to retire in such a grand way.

The story of Pakistan in this World Cup has to be Shahid Afridi. Cometh the hour— cometh the man. For a man whose Achilles heel has been his inconsistency, Afridi has rediscovered himself majestically at the grandest of stages. The maturity he has shown in his batting in both the semi-final and the final deserves a standing ovation from all and sundry. What made him Pakistan’s prized possession was that he was their trump card with the ball. Afridi produced a superb spell of leg spin bowling worthy enough for the great Abdul Qadir to be proud of. He was the player of the tournament in the last World Cup too but this time he has at last deserved the redemption of carrying his team to victory. Life had truly come a full circle for this talented Pathan from Karachi. With this achievement, he also enters a unique list of greats to have won the man of the match in the semi final and the final of a world cup.

The Sri Lankans were thoroughly outplayed by a team that badly wanted to win the tournament. With the turn of events that were unfolding, it just seemed that Pakistan was destined to win. From nowhere, the ICL neglect Abdul Razzak was drafted into the team and what a difference he made. He rocked the Sri Lankan top order with a devastating spell of controlled swing bowling. And from there on Sri Lanka was always playing for survival. A score of 138 was defendable if the Sri Lankans would have got early wickets. But Kamran Akmal took the game away from them with some lusty hitting. Finally it was left to the experience pair of Shahid Afridi and Shoiab Malik to take the team to a historical win at cricket’s most historical venue.

The Pakistanis have now permanently redeemed themselves from the trauma of the drama that unfolded in the 2007 World Cup in which they had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against their arch rivals India. The most relieved man in this team would undoubtedly be a certain Misbah ul Haq (no prizes for guessing why), from whose shoulders a huge burden has been relieved for the rest of his life. Cricket truly, like death, is a great leveler. In a game, somebody has to win and somebody has to lose. But in this case it was Cricket, which was the real winner. Viva la Cricket.