There were many complaints that the first six matches featured five games of a test team against an associate team, with the one exception being the outright favourites India against a team who would struggle to make the quarter finals in Bangladesh, which in itself was a mismatch.
Shahid Afridi. Courtesy: GETTY IMAGES
We saw such horrible mismatches as Kenya being bowled out for 69 and New Zealand getting the runs without even losing a wicket inside nine overs. Netherlands at least made it fairly close against England in something of an upset.
And then, even when we did have two test teams, New Zealand crumbled against Australia and West Indies never looked likely against South Africa. It wasn’t until match nine, when Bangladesh faced easily the best associate team in Ireland that we saw the first classic match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. Still some complained about it, as these were two teams who would be fighting for the final spot in the quarter finals, alongside West Indies and perhaps England.
Still they wanted that first classic encounter against two top teams. And this match did not disappoint.
Shahid Afridi with MoTM trophy. Courtesy: GETTY IMAGES
Pakistan started off very un-Pakistan like by batting quickly early on. Ahmed Shehzad fell early but then Mohammad Hafeez and Kamran Akmal lifted the run rate. This is Hafeez with the appalling ODI strike rate of 63.68, one of the worst in the world for top order batsmen, and he was batting at better than a run a ball. And Sri Lanka were shell-shocked. But then, in typical Pakistan fashion, they imploded.
Kamran Akmal called for the run and ran to his heart’s content at what was an easy single but Hafeez didn’t even look or listen. Hafeez ended up as the one who was run out, and deservedly so. The scorecard read run out (Herath/Jayawardene/†Sangakkara/Muralitharan) and that pretty much summed it up. It was a mix up of who ran him out as well.
After that, Pakistan seemed to capitulate as Kamran Akmal didn’t last much longer and in spite of Shahid Afridi’s promise that Younus Khan and Misbah ul Haq would never bat together as they batted too slow and in this case they did. And they held it together very well. Then, in very unlike Younus and Misbah fashion, they were scoring at close to a run a ball.
Enter Murali, who suffocated the run rate and Herath did a pretty good job too. They weren’t getting out though and one felt that with Afridi and Razzaq to come Pakistan would explode. It was a bit of a surprise really that when Younus Khan finally did fall that Umar Akmal came in not Afridi or Razzaq. Umar Akmal didn’t do much and by the time that Afridi and Razzaq came in there were hardly any overs left.
United Pakistan team. Courtesy: GETTY IMAGES
The Sri Lankan bowling line up, Herath and Murali aside, had looked impotent, though Perera did manage to get two wickets, but while going at almost seven runs per over. Relying on two all-rounders to bowl 10 overs each didn’t look too sensible and with Kulasakera being the main bowler they really didn’t look too threatening.
But yet Pakistan didn’t kick on. They should have got 300+ and, with how they have batted at the end in matches past, 320-330 or so would not have been a surprise. But to Sri Lanka’s credit they restricted them to just 277. It was a lot better than it had looked through most of the innings. The question was whether Sri Lanka’s batsmen could reel it in.
Sri Lanka batted slowly at first, which is very unlike them. No wickets fell but they were quickly falling behind the run rate. But then, as the opening partnership grew, the run rate grew with it and it was looking like Sri Lanka would win the match. Then Mohammad Hafeez, who isn’t exactly highly regarded as a off spin bowler, took a crucial wicket, breaking the opening partnership right at the stage where they were about to take the game away from Pakistan. Afridi took the catch and it felt like it was a match changing dismissal.
Happy Pakistan team. Courtesy: GETTY IMAGES
Not long later, Afridi then clean bowled Dilshan and suddenly Sri Lanka were on the ropes. Of course, Jayawardene and Sangakkara, two big hitting yet solid batsmen, were coming in, and then don’t forget their big strikers Mathews and especially Perera, who were yet to come.
But Jayawardene didn’t last long and was clean bowled by Rawalpindi Express Shoaib Akhtar. Jayawardene was so shocked that he even turned around to make sure that the stumps were really rattled. Pakistan were well on top and it was hard to imagine Sri Lanka coming back.
Samaraweera is in the squad to shore up the middle order, more of a plodder than a striker, and his main role is to rescue the side when they get into this kind of situation. But such was Sri Lanka’s plight that even he couldn’t do anything. He was made to look like a bunny as Kamran Akmal took the first of the two stumpings of the innings, this one off Shahid Afridi, and Afridi had his second wicket of the match.
Silva is a player who many feel shouldn’t be in the squad but who else is there to replace him? Nobody really. Jayasuriya many felt should have played just so that this major hole is the squad wouldn’t be exposed, and Silva just didn’t seem to know what he was doing. He blocked well as the required run rate rose from nearly six to up around eight and nine.
At one stage Silva had scored 13 off 44 deliveries, an appalling record when chasing 277 and when Sri Lanka was already behind on the run rate. Sangakkara was left with far too much to do and while he himself had a good strike rate Silva was just chewing up too many dot balls and handing the game to Pakistan.
Then Sangakkara fell, then Mathews had a brief fruitful period and then Perera smashed it but was there all too briefly and suddenly Silva was there batting with the tail. It looked all over but suddenly this guy who had broken the Sri Lankan record for most deliveries in a world cup without scoring a boundary started to bat with more freedom.
Shahid Afridi & Kumar Sangakarra. Courtesy: GETTY IMAGES
Suddenly, when all seemed lost, he looked like he might just be able to lead Sri Lanka to victory. He was being viewed a bit differently. But just as Silva was started to look good, Rehman took his only wicket and Kamran Akmal had his second stumping, an appalling effort from Silva as he was way down his crease off a wide. 57 off 78 and he had given his wicket away so cheaply, so foolishly. And it looked all but over.
But nobody told tail-ender Kulasekera that. Facing more than 10 runs per over and only tailenders left, Kulasekera batted like a top order batsman, hitting powerful 4s and one monster six. What was worse that Pakistan had run out of bowlers. Their three premier bowlers, Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi and Abdul Rehman had bowled out and now we were left with the expensive Umar Gul or the two who didn’t penetrate in Abdul Razzaq and Mohammad Hafeez. Who would bowl? Could Sri Lanka capitalise and yet win it?
Hafeez was the bowler and bowled fairly tightly but Kulasekera hit six off the last ball and now there were 18 left from the last over. A tough ask, made worse by Herath being on strike. It became 18 off 5, 17 off 4, then 13 off 3. And then, crucially, what looked like a wide down the leg side was given as a dot ball.
A wide would have made it an encouraging 12 off 3 but instead it was an impossible 13 off 2. A tie was still possible and the very next ball Kulasekera tried to do exactly that as he smashed what looked for all the world like a towering six. Yet it fell just short, and Umar Akmal hung on to a difficult catch, not the least because of the pressure surrounding it. The last ball didn’t matter as Murali walked through for a leg bye and Pakistan had won by 11 runs.
90% of the match Pakistan was ahead but at the end of the day the margin was just 11 runs. It was close. Sri Lanka had rested Lasith Malinga and a minor surprise was the exclusion of Ajantha Mendis. Sri Lanka’s bowling, bar Murali and Herath, had been somewhat impotent, so that may have made all the difference. But really, for most of the chase, the match was lost by Silva. He did salvage it somewhat towards the end, but it just felt like he had lost it.
Pakistan were actually underdogs for this match, as Sri Lanka is as much as 2nd-4th favourites (depending on who you ask) while most have Pakistan as 5th-6th, some saying that they have an outside chance for the cup but others saying that they are not in the race.
Yet missing so many players from suspensions of various kinds almost seemed to unify them and this is a team fighting with the most unity and the most spirit that we have seen since 1992 under Imran Khan, the side who captured the world cup. Pakistan might not be the best team around and probably isn’t as good a team as Sri Lanka either, but they seemed to be the most unified team. And that may be enough to win them this title.
This was a classic match, especially for Pakistan fans and I think should give real belief that Pakistan can win the world cup.
