Gloom in cricket, bloom in hockey

Pakistan, fearless with the bat and fearsome with the ball, gave India its most painful bleed in cricket at the Oval on Sunday with an attack so lethal that the defending champions limped back with the ignominy of a 180-run defeat.

The stage could not have been bigger for Pakistan, a nation reeling under terrorism and bereft of any cricket at home for long years after the infamous attack on the touring Sri Lankan team.

Comprehensively beating arch rivals India at an ICC Final and lifting the Champions Trophy for the first time will go a long way in rebuilding the confidence of this nation which implodes at the drop of a hat and yet can be passionate tamer of any situation emanating out of the blue.

The big stage win was extra special because a group of mostly untested youngsters, sporting nothing but passion and self-belief, pitted their battle impossible against seasoned star campaigners from India and showed them up as a bunch of club cricketers.

The victory will, indeed, make role models out of these youngsters who gave their nation one of the very few reasons to smile in recent times.

Coming to India, it was quite a picture of contrast from the high octane campaign they had unfolded so far. Neither the bowlers, nor the much famed batters led by skipper Virat Kohli could do much to stop the comprehensive way the Pakistanis outplayed them in every field.

Jasprit Bumrah was a soiree of incredible indiscipline, delivering no balls and wides almost like diarrhea. He was singularly responsible for no-balling India to defeat when he crossed the line on a delivery which caught Fakhar who then went on to play a match winning knock of 114 runs.

Ravichandran Ashwin was completely sterile, going for gentle floaters instead of wicket-taking turners, something he has done on flat wickets earlier.

Ravindra Jadeja showed no fangs with the bat or ball. Bhuvneshwar was the only bowler who earned some respect of his opponents but as a lone fighter fell by the wayside anyway.

To top that, skipper Kohli strangely decided to continue with Ashwin in the middle overs despite him being torn apart by the Pakistani frontline batsmen. By the time he brought in Kedar Jadhav in a bid to break the rhythm of the Pakistanis, it was much too late for any revival or, for that matter, survival.

But, kudos to the men in green! They paced their innings clinically, hitting at least a boundary in most overs and rotating the strike when the ball came menacingly straight at them.

Indians, on the other hand, were taken out in a jiffy by a brilliantly fierce, measured and fast Mohammad Amir who came back from a missed match and injury with the solidity of iron ore. He broke India's backbone in the first three overs, taking out Rohit Sharma for a duck, getting Virat Kohli despite a dropped catch and then packing off no less a danger than Shikhar Dhawan, leaving the Men in Blue to struggle agonisingly till the last wicket fell much before the 40th over.

The brief burst of purpose showed by a muscular Hardik Pandya and his handsome sixes was felled by Jadeja's mix-up in a run-out and from then on, it was a march to the funeral in this much hyped Final in which India were the unmatched favourites. Yuvi and Dhoni struggled and walked too without finishing or even starting out.

The revenge was, however, taken in a nearby hockey centre where Team India took out a feeble Pakistan with a 7-1 semifinal victory, wearing black bands in protest against the Pakistani Government condoning the death of the Indian soldiers in Kashmir.

But the revenge was not so sweet for two reasons: One, while hockey may be our national sport, it is no longer our national obsession or passion. Cricket is and that's where we lost much too humiliatingly. Two, in hockey, Pakistan was at the bottom of the rankings while India table toppers. In cricket, India has been on the top for a long time as Pakistan has struggled with domestic issues and the general volatility it sports in the game.

Perhaps, India would have been a happier nation this Sunday if it had the time and the inclination to celebrate the incredible victory of one Mr Kidambi Srikanth who outplayed stalwarts of the game in Badminton to lift the Indonesia Open title against all odds.

At Oval, Kohli put up a brave face to congratulate the Pakistani team and say that he will take it on the chin and move on.

At home, millions will take time to follow his advice and would instead be trying to pronounce Fakhar in English while the whole of Pakistan across the border does so in Urdu. 

Published: The Pioneer, 19 June, 2017