T20: Electrifying Afghanistan rattle Pakistan

In the annals of history, the people of Afghanistan have proved their warrior spirit time and again. And now it is the turn of the Afghanistan cricket team to rise to the occasion.

As they faced off Pakistan in the T20 World Cup on Friday, there were cricket fans who shrugged it as a simple win for Pakistan against the underdogs. But the David vs Goliath encounter proved to be a firecracker of a match. The pendulum swung to and fro as did the hearts of fans.

Afghanistan showed its muscle power not unlike Gulbadin who flexed his muscles after taking a catch. Rashid Khan’s superb bowling kept Pakistani batsmen teetering on the pitch like a cat on a hot tin roof and was mesmerising and nerve wracking in equal measure. There were so many variations and variety to his bowling that it was reminiscent of Cleopatra’s famous claim: ‘variety is the spice of life.’

The spice proved too hot to handle for even the mighty Babar Azam who struggled against Rashid’s carefully calibrated deliveries. The wizard gave away only 26 runs in his four overs. Until Asif Ali’s entrance, Afghanistan’s bowlers kept Pakistani batsmen on a tight leash while the fielders threw themselves on every ball as if their lives depended on it. In contrast, the easily rattled Hassan Ali proved to be the weakest link in the chain as he kept handing out runs like candy.

Rashid became the quickest to take 100 wickets in T201 in only his 53rd T20I. He endeared himself further by saying; “I want to play cricket in Pakistan. It’s a safe country. The only security threat is Babar’s batting and Shaheen’s bowling.”

No wonder the bowler laughed when Shoaib Malik initiated his stay at the crease by bending over backwards like a yogi. He had little difficulty in dismissing him a few deliveries later.

If one casts an eye on the Afghanistan team’s astonishing story, their quest for success and fierce determination becomes apparent. Coming from war ravaged Afghanistan, they started playing cricket in the Pakistani refugee camps of the 1990s with no pitch and no equipment. Instead, they plumped for tennis balls.

The cream of the crop joined academies in Peshawar where they started playing with the hard cricket ball. The majority working as part time labourers or sold chickens to make ends meet. But they did not miss a single day’s play.

The Afghanistan Cricket Board was formed in Pakistan in 1995. Despite cricket being banned by the Taliban, because it came under the umbrella of sports, they did not lose hope and in 2000 the Taliban finally relented. In 2001, the International Cricket Council accepted them as an affiliate member. And the rest is history.

It is not surprising that the cricketing style of the Afghanistan cricket team is reminiscent of Pakistani cricket because its foundation was laid in the refugee camps, with emphasis on fast bowling and wrist spin. As the swashbuckling captain Mohammed Nabi puts it: “Our mindset is to always play daringly. We have the same approach in bowling, whether they are fast bowlers or spinners.”

Alongside the never say die spirit of the daring Afghanistan team, one should not forget Asif Ali’s cricketing thread which had become bogged down after the tragic death of his infant daughter a few years ago. Despite being cancelled by fans for the slump, Islamabad United and Dean Jones stood by the player who has now vindicated their trust and shut down carping critics with his magnificent turn with the bat during the T20 World Cup. He had said earlier, “Some people think that I’m only a player who can bat four overs and my message to them is that this is not the case and whenever I get the opportunity, I will perform well.”

Asif displayed courage in not taking a single off the last ball of the previous over, sending back Shadab who was halfway down the pitch because he wanted to keep the strike. He backed himself to finish the game. As Tipu Sultan, the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, said

“It is far better to live like a tiger for a day than to live like a jackal for a hundred years.’’

While Kashmiri students in India who cheered for Pakistan during the Pakistan India match faced not only beatings, rustication and arrests, Afghan students studying in Numal University in Islamabad displayed Afghanistan’s flag and cheered on their team alongside Pakistani students. There was sporting applause for the Afghanistan team who have come to symbolise unity in their war torn and financially strapped country.

In the preamble to the T20, the Afghanistan team battled through visa issues and practiced in Qatar instead of UAE. Captain Mohammad Nabi, who started weeping when he heard his country’s national anthem in an earlier match, summed it up: “The fans are really waiting, because the only happiness in Afghanistan is cricket.”

If sports could be a parable for life, one is reminded of the great Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca who said, “Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.”

The writer is Oped Editor, Bol News