Skipper Younis Khan has made it crystal clear how badly Pakistan wants to win the World Twenty20 on Sunday with reasons ranging from the dearth of silveware in the last decade to his team getting labelled serious contenders in major tournaments once again. But most of all, he wants to win it for the terror-struck nation facing a bleak future.
Speaking after defeating tournament favourites South Africa in a pulsating semi-final at Trent Bridge, Younis lauded Shahid Afridi’s match-winning all-round performance but made sure the audience were reminded of the sufferings in Pakistan.
“The World Cup is everything for us,” Younis said. “I want to win it for the team, the nation and the millions suffering back at home, especially in the northern areas where I’m from. There are fights going on on a daily basis and I believe that winning the trophy will bring some smiles on their faces for a change.”
While the captain and team are unable to affect changes on the war-field, they ensured that they left the playing field at Trent Bridge with their best performance in the tournament so far, something Graeme Smith, South Africa’s captain, agreed with.
“Although we played great cricket throughout the tournament and today as well, credit must go to Pakistan as they played their best game of the tournament today,” Smith said. “Afridi had a great game with the bat and then the ball and he basically was the difference between the two sides.” We lost to a better team and that is something we’ll have to deal with.’
Afridi, consistent performer with the ball, repaid Younis’ trust and decision to promote him to number three. While he had shown glimpses of sensible batting, albeit in patches, as the tournament progressed, a significant contribution was surely missing.
He had told Dawn in an earlier interview how he was available, and prepared, to be promoted up the order to prove his worth with the bat. And although his aptly-timed first half-century in international cricket since January 2008 resembled one of a changed, and matured, cricketer, Afridi was adamant he was still as aggressive as ever.
“I was given a huge responsibility and told to play my natural game,’ Afridi said. “The captain really supported me and that’s always a benefit for any player. Playing aggressive cricket is my nature and I always enter the ground with the aim to win as I firmly believe it is my right to win and I have to fight for it.”
Credit must also go to the team effort, according to Afridi, as it was the self-belief in the playing eleven that got Pakistan through their toughest opponents thus-far. While marked improvements are constantly witnessed by the bowlers, Pakistan’s fielding — two dropped catches — and batting in the death overs — no boundaries in the last five overs — has become a cause for concern. Younis, with his customary light-hearted jokes and laughs, shrugged aside the concerns and said the plan for the final was simple: “Just go out there, do your best in all departments of the game and the cup is ours.”
Pakistan’s earlier experiments of juggling the batting line-up and playing elevens seemed to backfire at will, resulting in an inconsistent show on the tour. Keeping with his trend of parting with humorous and straight-forward remarks, Younis reckoned it was impossible for his side to be consistent. “We’re from Pakistan, nothing is stable there so how can we be stable,’ he said before adding that the slow-starters tag is something his team seems to carry into every series but it was the ‘momentum that we carry with every win that enables a strong performance in the following match’ was what mattered most.”
“It is important that we deliver the right thing at the right time and going into the final, I expect a strong performance from our match-winners namely Misbah-ul-Haq, Afridi, Umar Gul and Kamran Akmal. South Africa is the toughest team in world cricket right now and now that we have beaten them, I believe we can go and win the cup.”
While Pakistan await the winner’s of the second semi-final that took place at The Oval last night, Jacque Kallis, the South African allrounder, must be ruing the barrage of short balls that faced Afridi’s wrath and, in turn, delivered a damning verdict on the outcome of the match, sealed with a kiss.
© Faras Ghani 2009
Published in DAWN newspaper June 20, 2009
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