Asia Cup, 4th ODI: Lady Luck Eludes Pakistan; Harbhajan Singh Roars as India Win Thrilling Match
Not long ago, Pakistan was regarded as the team to win in the most unlikely circumstances, and their One-Day history is filled with some of the most astonishing comebacks ever. However, lately they have entered into a zone where they simply cannot close a match, even if it is going heavily in their favour.
The 4th Asia Cup ODI saw a similar story for the Green Shirts, as after fighting tooth and nail with the Indians for 99 overs, and staging a remarkable comeback, Mohammad Aamer dished out a length delivery in the penultimate ball of the match, which was swatted over the square-leg fence by Harbhajan Singh to end Pakistan’s hopes of qualifying for the finals of the Asia Cup cricket tournament.
Perhaps lady luck is sick and tired of Pakistan cricket; the never-ending controversies, lack of player power, match-fixing allegations and the endless power tussle by the administrators, and has vowed to shun the men in green for good.
The reversal against India today is the ninth consecutive defeat for the men in green in One-Day internationals, and a close monitoring of these matches reveals that the Pakistan team has a knack for imploding in the last few moments of the game.
Even in the opening game of the Asia Cup, a belligerent Shahid Afridi had brought his team back in contention from a hopeless situation to set up a win, before the tail-enders caved in with only a handful of runs needed, leaving Abdul Razzaq high and dry.
Today in Dambulla, Afridi won a crucial toss and opted to bat. His openers got the team off to a solid start, and Pakistan was on course for a 300 run total, when some mindless batting, and tight bowling by the Indians derailed their progress.
Despite the dip in the batting charge, the Pakistanis were able to put on the board a sizeable total of 267 runs, which was a real challenge even for the formidable Indian batting line-up.
The Indian openers were steady at the start, and the loss of Virender Sehwag did little to deter the pugnacious Gautam Gambhir, who along with MS Dhoni added 98 runs for the third wicket, in what eventually turned out to be a match-winning stand.
Pakistan at this stage roared back courtesy Saeed Ajmal, who accounted for Gambhir, while Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni also fell in quick succession to Afridi and Shoaib Malik.
Suresh Raina then stepped up, smashing a big six off Saeed Ajmal to signal his intentions, and in the next over Harbhajan Singh smoked a huge six off Shoaib Akhtar over the long-on region, and the Indians were right back in the contest despite needing nearly ten runs per over in the last four overs of the match.
Shoaib Akhtar, who impressed in his opening burst, was a shadow of his former self in the last overs of the innings, dishing out one length delivery after another, as it clearly was evident that he did not have the energy to produce his trademark searing yorkers that were simply impossible to score off.
He was tonked for another maximum by Raina in the penultimate over, and left just seven runs in the final over for Mohammad Aamer.
The left-armer bowled three fantastic deliveries, and Kamran Akmal ran out Raina in the process, yet it was simply not Pakistan’s night, as Harbhajan gave millions of Indians reason to celebrate for the entire night by smashing the ball out of the ground with three needed for a win off the last two balls.
The jubilant Indians ran off the field and mobbed their hero. Yet despite his heroics, the man of the match award went to Gautam Gambhir.
After the match, Gambhir declared that his team was determined to avenge the loss against Pakistan in last year’s Champions Trophy in South Africa. Gambhir said, "The Champions Trophy was fresh in my mind, this was payback time. Not only me but the whole team determined to win this one. The game plan was to have wickets in hand, not to just go bang bang. We had some big hitters to follow; we kept telling each other we need to bat as long as possible. We had Powerplay in the last 10 too. The way Bhajji and Raina finished off was great”.
Tags: