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On the surface, Pakistan are playing South Africa. Hang in till the last ten overs, Pakistan start to play themselves. Then around the last 7-8 overs, South Africa start playing themselves. The series is Pak vs SAF vs SAF vs PAK vs PAK. Who needs a triangular, these teams are two faced.
1. The Run-out: Haider plays back to Parnell. Runs a few paces down, and as it should be Haider’s call (but isn’t), Wahab runs more than a few paces down. There is time for a mid pitch conference, instead Parnell runs Wahab out. Wahab looks so sad, if only he could see the run out, he’d laugh too. (And so we tweeted: Next, they should try and run before the ball has been delivered. Even better when the bowler is gng back to his mark.
2. The Run-out that wasn’t: The tailenders go for a second which wasn’t. Ball thrown at bowler’s end, Steyn collects, with his back to the runner, responds to AB’s call, and instead of knocking the bails at his end, about turns and throws to keeper. If only he could see the replay, appears he does. He resembles an annoyed Wahab.
3. Brain fade that wasn’t: It was just Afridi. Just over a 100 to get, 18+ overs to get them in. Boom Boom down the wicket to hit Botha outta the ground. Yes, he’s the captain.
4. Return of the other Y: So the other, other Y has gone away. The world is not big enough for both Ys. Today, Younis hung in long enough to face more balls than Afridi has faced in his entire ODI career. He even made it to the Man of the match. He didn’t smile much, spoke in Urdu. Refreshing.
5. Return of the other captain: Smith was setting the field. Appears he was captain. The other day he wasn’t, Botha was. It is obvious now, both teams complement each other – but not themselves.
6. Gibbs takes his lance out – he sticks it into Smith and his gang. As a result, Smith, Kallis, AB, continue to think about weird excerpts from Gibbs’ book (most expensive shag) when they really should keep their eyes on the ball. Catch dropped. Demands for a new tech called Speech Blurb Cloud find voice.
7. Steyn takes his place – goes for 79 of 10. And that run out.
8. Shoiab Akhtar takes his place – scores 0 runs again to see Pak through. In the 2nd ODI he faced 1 ball, in the 4th, no ball. He did not however receive a free hit.
And so we tweeted: Gng by the freak cricket they produce, SAF and Pak should be part of each others' domestic tournaments.
The Pak-SAF Freak Show.
Abdul Razzaq - The unemotional Boom Boom
What does Razzaq do when he’s happy? He possibly says, I’m happy, and that’s that. He doesn’t do the Boom Boom manoeuvre, at best, he shows that little gap in the teeth, as his face sloppily breaks into a smile. I like players like Razzaq and Klusener. But they tend to go away, and when they’re away, most of us won’t notice they’ve gone away.
Then they come back, and do what they will, and everyone loves them for a day. But I’m not sure that they like them. They love them, and that’s fleeting, like the headlines. Today Razzaq is the headline, that will make him flinch. He’s a player, far comfier being the subtext.
And that in itself is the undoing of Razzaq. He will bat and bowl, where the team wants him. So he opens the bowling, tomorrow, they could make him open the batting. It’ll be a wonder if they can make him open his mouth.
And when he does, it’s in Urdu, not in English. So, no, Razzaq will not be captain. If they run out of captains, they will make a dodo debut, and cap him as captain. But not Razzaq.
This is surprising to me: Going by some of Razzaq’s innings, there’s some solid equilibrium to his mental. He can stay, stay, stay and then go nuts, nuts, nuts. In the blink of an eye, he can shift from clenched fists to an assault riffle taking aim. And that when the man isn’t even empowered, when he’s on his own little island. Or is that Razzaq, aloof, by himself, the man who stands outside the huddle.
Today Razzaq came off. His timing was Swiss made, and his leaves, they were springlike. They were funny too, and that’s what is so damn endearing about Razzaq, he can be funny, unintentionally so – an innings of his, when it goes the distance, will be flawed, and in those flaws will be moments of demented cricketing beauty. My pick, when he got all awkward, opening his legs, and letting the ball through. It appeared he even farted.
And then he went nuts. With 9 down, and only Shoaib Akhtar to be run out (after Haider, Riaz, Ajmal ), Razzaq was Lake Placid. Come to think of it, if they were bowled out, Razzaq would have still found a way to win the match.
The Dubai Bored Chapter & The LUMS Connection
Khizer Bilal, Fahd Salam, Najia Habib, Afan Nabi Malik, Taimur Shera, Ashab Naeem, Umar Khan, Runaas Deheem, Qazi Owais, Kiran Khan, and I at the Time Cafe at Ramee Royal in Dubai.
That sounds like a mini LUMS (Lahore University of Management Sciences, where we all went for our undergraduate degrees) reunion, but that is not what it was.
The occasion was the World Twenty20 semi final between Pakistan and South Africa, where all of us were joined by Natasha, Sabrina, Mohi, Sonya, Amir Shera, Runi's wife and friends, Amir Rehan, Shikin, Bhaskar, and Raja B, to cheer Pakistan into the final!
The last 3 mentioned being Indians who were there in support of Pakistan as much as we were.
And the last 2 mentioned, Bhaskar and Raja B, were there to finally open the Bored Chapter in Dubai!
Bhaskar was there, blackberry in tow, providing LIVE updates of the happenings right here on BCC!
Raja has also captured the experience of that evening, right here.
10 years to this date, almost (20th June 1999), the above mentioned LUMS contingent along with many others had gathered together at the Sayeed Saigol auditorium to witness another cricket world cup final.
That day, Steve Waugh's men shattered all our dreams and hopes.
Men crying outside the Sayeed Saigol, in the courtyard, and every corner of LUMS on that unforgettable day is a sight still etched in my memory.
Last night, even though it was not a final, rather Pakistan's march into one, that was not to be.
The emotions we all went through during the match cannot be described in words.
Every run scored, and every wicket taken was celebrated as if we were in the field with the Afridis and Guls.
Every Afridi wicket brought about an Afridiesque pose from the crowd, every good over was met with cheers of 'jeetaga bhayee jeetega, Pakistan jeetega', every blunder was frowned upon and cursed, every moment that brought Pakistan close to victory was witnessed with stress and hope.
Once Pakistan triumphed, it all ended in high fives and hugs.
The fact that last night's match was experienced with all the people mentioned, made victory all the more special.
Come Sunday, here's hoping that Pakistan fulfill their and our 10-year old dream of lifting a world cup trophy at Lord's!
A semifinal, and finally the bored meet
June 18, 2009 2000 hrs: The taxi rings in and it’s time to leave. More importantly it is time for the Dubai chapter of Bored to meet for the first time. Some interesting new chapter it is!!
This time the guy who would drive me to Times Café at Ramee Royal is a guy from Rajasthan, India - Shamsher. The moment the taxi left my house we were talking, about T20 world cup of course. Very unhappy that India is out of the tournament, Shamsher was frightened by the prospect of Pakistan winning the tournament, “Yeh Pathan log hame zinda jeene nahin denge sir”. He was referring to his fellow taxi drivers from Pakistan, how they would react if Pakistan wins the tournament. At the same breath he also added, but it is good if the cup comes back to our region.
By the time the taxi neared Ramee Royal, Kamran Akmal had already dispatched a couple to the boundary off Steyn’s first over. As we taxied in to the Ramee porch came Shamsher’s prophecy, “Sir aaj Afridi ka din lagta hi…” Looks like it is Afridi’s day, if he clicks then they are home and dry.
I happened to meet Bhaskar at the porch, as we walked in I was telling him it looked like Pakistan’s day today. By the time we managed to enter Ramee Royal and locate Q, the whole Pakistani contingent present there were on their toes, some sighing, shouting, cursing and some with that trademark (cricket fan’s) WTF’s happening look. It was entrée Afridi as Shahzaib trudged along after making a 2 ball zero.
As Afridi was warming up for what would be one of his best T20 innings ever, the South Africans were beginning to show signs. Signs, that they were destined to go only this far.
Over 2.5 Botha misfielding and then trying to smile it off. I was reminded of the Younis Khan during the warm up match against India, the "let me wash my pains off with a smile" reaction.
But just balls later, Malik who had just replaced Akmal was trying to play himself in. With some painful "do I or don’t I" prods on the away swinging balls from Kallis. I could hear murmurs “Isko kyun beja yaar” or Why did he send him in? Misbah should have come in...
As Afridi pulled Kallis over the midwicket for a four to end the 5th over, the applause was deafening. I could see Q jumping up with joy and spilling his glass of Coke, I could see a couple of guys rushing towards Q for high fives that would easily have broken at least one out of the five metacarpals on a normal day.
When Afridi "late nudged" Botha for four, to end the 11th over of fours the crowd went mad, I could overhear someone saying “Yaar aaj Afridi dhimag use kar raha hai, very unlike Afridi” (Afridi is using his brains today, very unlike him)
When Afridi got out for a well made 51 off 34 balls, it was over 12.1. Almost everyone in the room seemed satisfied that Afridi had done his job.
It then was a bit of a rollercoaster, at one point in time some among the Pakistani contingent felt Malik might be the the new Ravindra Jadeja for the day. There was a sense of relief among the crowd that Shoaib Malik finally got out after making 34 off 39 balls.
Pakistan finally made 149, it looked like about 5-10 runs less than the par score. Q and his Coke were still standing, they would continue to do so till Pakistan finally got home. But that would only come after a break of 15 minutes and a further 20 overs.
There was nothing to write home about the South African batting innings, except that Kallis innings or the Mumbai Indiansqe 44 by Duminy. The noise of Jeetega Bhai Jeetega soared by every ball bowled, when Morkel was runout in the 20th (19.3) it was party time. The crowd was sure the South Africans wouldn’t make the 16 required off 3 balls.
More beer, said me and Bhasker as Q went on helping the Coke marketshare soar up.
Positives of the day
Finally it happened, the Dubai chapter of Bored met
We saw Afridi in full form, and imagine how exciting this would be when you are the lone Indian (two of us) sitting in the midst of a thousand ecstatic Pakistani fans.
The beer that flowed, Mary - the ever smiling bartender who made sure we got our beer in quick time and the bajjiya and chutney which de-carbonated our beered souls a bit
Negatives
The Dhs 50 cover charge to enter the place (some other day it would have got us 2 pints, we could redeem only one on that day)
I had to be content with the beer and the “ever Young Monk”, Afridi (heard he is only 29 yet) as I wouldn’t get my Old Monk at Times Café.
Poor Shamsher, who is going to be taunted by his Pathan colleagues for god knows how long...
Bored in Dubai - Live Update 5
Sob , 5th trip to the Men's and I wish I had a team to cheer for : 84-3
Bhaskar Khaund
Sent from Blackberry handheld
Bored in Dubai - Live update 3
And what was Update 2 in comparison ? AB's gone and believe me bro so are my ears - I think BooM Boom's gonna blow the cricketing world apart today ! Whatever the outcome, this is a seriously Occassion day performance from Afridi. Man , what atmosphere n how I wish we were playing ! - 61-3
Bhaskar Khaund
Sent from Blackberry handheld
Bored in Dubai - Live Update 2
40-1 : come in from the loo to hear some serious noise. Of course , Smith's gone to the dugout and am sure Q's digging it all. Can't see him tho' , ah there he is , right in front of the screen. "Jeetega bhai jeetega pakistan jeetega " erupts like a loud volcano. - I come back to down my cool Guinness magma. Gibbs just got a four , and blve it or not one of the sighers of disappointment at that boundary is Raja B - talk of world peace and bhaichara , has it really got this big? - and HaNG ON - HE'S BOWLED !! Hershelle is history , its Boom Boom day . These capslock can not adeqtly capture the jubilation here - jesus I can't hear myself think. ! 47-2 , YES TWO !
by Bhaskar Khaund
Sent from Blackberry handheld
Bored in Dubai -LIVE Update
124-4 : Boom Boom finally filled that long overdue room . Well here we r , Raja n I representing BCC! at the BCCP ! Great atmosphere , the beers r going down swell ; our neighbours are having a great time and so are we ! Great meeting Q finally, tho' he is understandably too tense to sit down in peace , he is knocking back his coke standing up, unlike we knocked out Injuns who can now sit back with our beers to actually enjoy a game ...More later
by Bhaskar Khaund
Sent from Blackberry handheld
Early Bored Call Paskistan vs South Africa
Ok, this is almost too easy, as were the other two Pak games, one against India (warm up) and the other against Lanka (warmed up), both which Pak lost - because, one was Wasim Bhai's birthday, the other, MianDad's. Today however, is no X men's birthday. Naturally Pak can concentrate on the job at hand, and leave the celebrations for later.
