Pakistan mourns the Hussey miracle
It is difficult to comprehend how Pakistan will end its losing streak to Australia in international cricket which now stretches to 12 after the most bizarre, gut wrenching and shocking reversal in the semi-final of the T-20 World championship in St.Lucia.
Let us have a re-run of the nail-biters amongst these 12 defeats. The run started in Centurion in the last league match of the Champions trophy last year, after the Aussies were eventually cruising, the men in green hit back hard after the Australians were cruising home leaving them staring at a defeat and an exit from the tournament with only two wickets standing, yet Brett Lee and Nathan Hauritz some how took their team through.
On the tour of Australia, Pakistan capitulated extraordinarily in the Sydney test after blowing them away for 127 in the first innings of a test match, and having them effectively 80 odd for 8 in their second, and on the last international match the men in green surrendered after restricting the Aussies to 120 odd in a T-20 international at Melbourne.
In between Shahid Afridi’s ball biting madness had denied Pakistan a possible win when the match seemed in their control, yet and yet again the Aussies sneaked home. But what can be said about the semi-final of the T-20 World championship in St.Lucia yesterday, How can one explain the Hussey miracle (Who was at the forefront of the Sydney test win) who allowed him to gate crash Pakistan’s party after the batsmen in one of the most fearless display in their chequered history had totally neutralised the Australian pace trio of Tait, Nannes and Johnson to post the joint highest total of the tournament 191.
The millions who were dancing in joy in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and every nook and corner of the country were preparing for a party, a celebration that would go beyond the morning, as 18 were needed of the last overs.
No one had ever done it especially in a semi-final, under extraordinary pressure, yet 5 balls had changed it all, Mr Cricket Mike Hussey chose to capture the moment and broke 170 million hearts, and a disconsolate Saeed Ajmal who was treated like a club bowler in the crucial over, sank into the ground utterly bewildered, shocked and heartbroken.
During the last three overs when we were busy making our own party plans, a friend of mine had quipped “wait a little Hussey is still at the crease”, and we all laughed at him, and it is hard to explain how we all felt recalling that quip as one six after another thundered off Hussey’s bat in the last over.
As the Aussies celebrated people left the venues where gigantic screens had been placed, and immediately after the match the power was shut down across Karachi in a reflection of what the stunned nation had just witnessed!
Even cricketing experts who have seen many extraordinary wins and defeats in their careers were lost for words, with the speed merchant Shoaib Akhtar simply saying “ I am speechless, please don’t ask me to explain” when asked to explain the Hussey miracle during his televised show on a local sports channel.
Pakistan’s Asperger’s syndrome (The fear of yellow) has turned into a cancer the men in green are simply clueless and have been badly scarred by the Australians time and again, the ailment apparently has no treatment, since what ever they do they end up losing. The Australians have a voodoo on them, who can break their spell is the question Pakistan Cricket Board must ask the players, perhaps the next time the men in green line-up against them they should field a brand new team that is not suffering from the Asperger’s syndrome, even a bunch of Under-19 cricketers with fresh unscarred minds might have a better chance of winning, since after yesterday the current Pakistan squad would be convinced that they can’t beat Australia, even if their lives are at stake!
On the other hand what about the Hussey phenomenon “The freak “ a thorough Australian determined to the core, his exploits can be best described by using a quote from a leading cricket website, cricinfo which defines "Australianism," as “single-minded determination to win - to win within the laws but, if necessary, to the last limit within them.
It means where the 'impossible' is within the realm of what the human body can do, there are Australians who believe that they can do it - and who have succeeded often enough to make us wonder if anything is impossible to them.”
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