Misbah-ul-Haq tries to save a test match
India. Pakistan. The World Cup semi-final.
Sachin teased us with the possibility of a 100th hundred before dashing a nation’s hopes until at least Saturday. Sehwag teased us with the possibility of a 100 hundreds during the batting power play before getting out.
Wahab Riaz, who might have been man of the match, kept things interesting with 5 wickets to reel India in after Sehwag’s lightning start. Boom Boom fizzled out, the Akmals flattered to deceive. Murali watched, and waited.
Meanwhile, Misbah-ul-Haq was busy devoting his innings to sending Bob Willis an impassioned message of solidarity with Jonathan Trott.
Ball after ball was defended, mis-nurdled and bunted to waiting fielders as the required run-rate climbed eagerly upwards. Misbah was an ocean of comatose calm amidst a sea of anxiety and rising discontent.
Twitter, Test Match Sofa and Nick Knight were all united in their condemnation and sartorial abuse of Misbah as he carried on in his serene, untroubled manner.
The F word briefly reared it’s head before getting bored and sloping off to arrange some no-balls.
But Misbah didn’t care. On he went, like a freight train with too many wagons.
There is certainly still an important place in fifty over cricket for innings building, but this was taking the concept to an unhealthy new level. All teams need to have an accumulator in their lineup, someone who takes the singles, rotates the strike and builds a platform for the late assault.
Yet this is not what Misbah did. He batted as though he was playing a test match, trying to prevent defeat in the final session of the 5th day, maintaining a strike-rate of about 30 throughout much of his innings. For a couple of hours, Misbah was Paul Collingwood, playing a flinty, match-saving innings against Australia at Cardiff.
Younis Khan had earlier tried to do the same but had fallen just when he looked too likely to emulate the great Durham nurdler.
Eventually Misbah did accelerate. A bit. He even managed to find the boundary but, once the 9th wicket had fallen, chose to try and protect last man Saeed Ajmal from the strike by refusing runs. It was a bizarre spectacle, one ill-befitting the performances Pakistan have brought to this tournament.
So whilst Sachin (along with 10 other Indians) travels to a date with destiny in Mumbai, Misbah returns to Pakistan to face the fury of a dissatisfied senate.
Where limited over cricket is concerned, haste does not necessarily make waste.
Comments:
0