With his arms spread he stood in the centre of the pitch, striking his customary ‘king-of-the-world’ pose as teammates engulfed him in an embrace. Having just dismissed his counterpart Kumar Sangakkara, who till then had looked the lone obstacle in Pakistan’s path to a convincing victory, Shahid Afridi’s jubilation — and that of his entire team — did seem warranted though. That wasn’t the only opportunity, however, that the Pakistani skipper got on Saturday to showcase his passion.
And on what proved to be another near-perfect display by the Men in Green at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, it was Afridi, with his second consecutive man-of-the-match winning performance, who hogged the spotlight again in his team’s 11-run victory. The perpetually unsung pair of Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq had, meanwhile, earlier in the day provided their team with a competitive target of 278 to defend with a century-plus partnership.Led by Shoaib Akhtar, who produced probably one of the balls of the tournament by breaking open the defences of Mahela Jayawardene, all the Pakistani bowlers played their part to the hilt, always keeping their team in front. The focus, however, stubbornly remained transfixed on Afridi — whether while he rocked the Sri Lankan batting with the wickets of Tillakaratane Dilshan and Thilan Samaraweera or as he marshalled his forces in his usual animated fashion.
There is hardly a passive moment when the Pakistan skipper is in the field. And he was all over the place on Saturday, shouting orders, egging his bowlers on whenever they erred and even once asking them to get a move on by gesticulating towards his watch.
