Battle Royale – V

Pakistan vs India World Cup 2011 Semi finalAlfred Hitchcock once said, “There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it”.

Alfred Hitchcock had never witnessed the anticipation or the bang of an Indo-Pak cricket match. A match that lasts approx 8-hours, is played between 22 players but directly or indirectly affects nearly 1/6th of the human population. The government of Pakistan declared a half-day holiday. The government of Sindh declared a full-day holiday. The Indian parliament shut shop at 2:00 pm. Apparently, decisions involving the future of more than 1 Billion people could wait. More Indian visas were issued to Pakistanis in 48 hours than are issued in a month. The world’s second fastest growing economy pushed back the end of its financial year by a day.

And then it was suddenly all over.

180 Million People had their lips sealed but their heads still held high. Another 1 Billion had their chests puffed out and heads held higher.

A small library can be filled up with all the various articles written and News segments played in anticipation of the match. A smaller section of the same library can be filled up with the articles that will be written after the match. But nothing or no one can change, what all knew would happen. One would win and one would loose. And in 5 attempts, this is probably the closest Pakistan got to defeating India in an ODI World Cup match. This was Pakistan’s best. And Pakistan’s best wasn’t good enough.

Was it Sehwag’s initial fury or was it Gul’s wayward slinging. Was it those dropped catches or was it the lack of attacking field settings. Was it the non-existent partnerships or was it the disciplined Indian bowling. Was it the slackness of the middle order or was it….just not meant to be…not now.

TVs have been smashed, Questions will be asked. Tears have been shed, Controversies will rise. Hearts have been broken, Heads may fall.

But the match was clean. No drugs taken, No teammates beaten, No no-balls fixed and No balls chewed. The stares were there but the shoves were absent. The chatter was there but the sledge wasn’t.

Indians will remind you 5 – 0.

Pakistanis will look to 2015.


4 thoughts on “Battle Royale – V”

  1. @Maddie: Very well written.

    @Jawad: There was no match fixing involved. Pakistan’s game against Canada, where Canada dominated three-quarters of the match, showed that Pakistan was not in a position to win the World Cup. And Canada is a real minnow. Furthermore, Pakistan’s success in the World Cup can be easily attributed to Shahid Afridi’s bowling, and he is not even a frontline bowler. Apart from Afridi, no one played a part in the World Cup.

    Concerning the India-Pakistan match, Pakistan did an awesome job to restrict India to 260 on an easy batting wicket, especially with 50 odd on the board after 5 overs. The dropped catches did not take India to a huge total. Furthermore, even if the first dropped catch had been taken, someone else would have used up the deliveries to score the runs that Tendulkar scored.

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  2. @ Jawad

    No doubt that a number of Pakistani cricketers have been caught in wrongful acts (with concrete evidence). However, to make statements like “… all was fixed and was played to perfection” without any evidence is being foolish. How do you know that the match was fixed? Did you fix it? Were you present when it was fixed? Do you have any proof of this happening? Or just because Pakistan lost to India, you reckon the match must have been fixed?

    “India team in no way was stronger than pakistan and would not have stood a chance…” Just like you feel that your cricket team is the best in the world, every Indian feels that the Indian team is the best, and every Australian feels that the Australian team is the best and every Sri Lankan feels that the Sri Lankan team is the best. The standing of one team against the others is determined by the results of matches, not by the number of people supporting it. If that was the case, then the Chinese cricket team would have been the best in the world and USA, Indonesia and Brazil would have had better cricket teams than Pakistan.

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  3. What i cannot understand is that were all pakistani watching the same match as i was watching ….. this seemed to me as a nura kushti, where the whole stage is set and two pehlwan will do moves that have been decided upfront. Be it the dropped catches, the bowling of the best bowler (umer gul), the unsuccesful batting of all the top order and ridiculous and selfish batting of Misbah … it was nora kushti … all was fixed and was played to perfection. India team in no way was stronger than pakistan and would not have stood a chance if we had not been corrupt scums of the earth.

    Come to think of it, it has now become a normal mentality of pakistani’s that taking money is fine as long as country has to suffer for your sins … be it raymond davis, indo-pak cricket match, corrupt leaders, corrupt education system …. we treat pakistan as last and our personal self first …. soon very soon we will pass the stage of no return and then we will repent …. i am sure Quaid’s Roh is tossing around just thinking what a big mistake he made by making this corrupt country … offcourse he would be punished for his sin of creating a nation for people who deserved to be slaves ….

    I am disappointed, i am hurt and most of all i am disgusted …. today is the day cricket died and its not going to get a proper burial … its going to rot and no one is going to go close to it …. All you bookies and corrupt players will soon have nothing to bet on ….. coz people will see through this …. Waiting for that day to come …

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  4. I like the way you put up this article.

    What ever happened that day I have no questions/allegations for the
    Pakistan team. Aftr Sri lankan team attack incidnt Pakistan cricket has
    sufferd a lot even people in Pakistan can not witness the live action of
    World cup 2011 in Pakistani grounds but still to be the group champions beating
    Australia and Sri Lanka and reaching the semi final being played in India
    is an achievement worth while to cheer up.

    SO Bravo to team Pakistan!!! I will wait for the dare When India will
    come to Pakistan to play aman ki asha series.

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