Pakistan has won the second edition of T20 World Cup, which saw the early exits of teams like Australia, India in super Eights and S Africa in the semis. The victory can be nonetheless sweeter given the kind of events that have taken place in Pakistan in the past few months.
The start of their T20 journey could hardly have been termed ideal - losing to their arch-rivals, form of their bowlers not really encouraging and the perennial unrest that the team suffers within. In a very pragmatic move the decision of re-calling Abdul Razzaq into the national side paid dividends as the spike in their performance can largely be attributed to his presence. Razzaq had joined ICL but was recalled for national duty after he left ICL, quite unlike a fortune of Indian players who even after leaving ICL are to serve a period of exile as a 'punishment'. Sounds like a school!
In a way Pakistan deserved to win this T20 WC. The last WC too could have gone their way with the match perfectly balanced and some fine performance by Misbaah, including the last, now-famous, 'Misbaah-shot' landing the cup in Sreesanth's hands. Sounds illogical but it appeared as if there couldn't have been any better result than this - Pakistan winning the Cup and getting its due. Use any methodology of analysis, the fact is that they are the current champions thus proving themselves as better than any other team in the tournament.
In all this the Indian team slipped from its haloed pedestal with people calling its last victory as flash in the pan and the captain and his players as blue-moon wonders. Nasser Hussain remarked that Indians were done in by their technical inability to tackle bouncers. Some others, in fact many, have pointed out the exhausting cricket calender that the team had prior to the WC. This author believes that there were some very silly decisions taken on the field, but reasons amounting to India's early exit can be numerous. What remains to be seen is how does the Indian cricket shapes up from now on and whether learnings are translated into meaningful actions.
Meanwhile its Eid in Pakistan! Well done Pakistan on a most deserving victory and may this victory unite the nation and keep it in peace!
The start of their T20 journey could hardly have been termed ideal - losing to their arch-rivals, form of their bowlers not really encouraging and the perennial unrest that the team suffers within. In a very pragmatic move the decision of re-calling Abdul Razzaq into the national side paid dividends as the spike in their performance can largely be attributed to his presence. Razzaq had joined ICL but was recalled for national duty after he left ICL, quite unlike a fortune of Indian players who even after leaving ICL are to serve a period of exile as a 'punishment'. Sounds like a school!
In a way Pakistan deserved to win this T20 WC. The last WC too could have gone their way with the match perfectly balanced and some fine performance by Misbaah, including the last, now-famous, 'Misbaah-shot' landing the cup in Sreesanth's hands. Sounds illogical but it appeared as if there couldn't have been any better result than this - Pakistan winning the Cup and getting its due. Use any methodology of analysis, the fact is that they are the current champions thus proving themselves as better than any other team in the tournament.
In all this the Indian team slipped from its haloed pedestal with people calling its last victory as flash in the pan and the captain and his players as blue-moon wonders. Nasser Hussain remarked that Indians were done in by their technical inability to tackle bouncers. Some others, in fact many, have pointed out the exhausting cricket calender that the team had prior to the WC. This author believes that there were some very silly decisions taken on the field, but reasons amounting to India's early exit can be numerous. What remains to be seen is how does the Indian cricket shapes up from now on and whether learnings are translated into meaningful actions.
Meanwhile its Eid in Pakistan! Well done Pakistan on a most deserving victory and may this victory unite the nation and keep it in peace!
