Tales about India-Pakistan games don’t have expiry dates. So it will never be too late, or outdated, to talk about the October 23, 2022 India-Pakistan special, the game with an engrossingly original script.
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Last-ball sixes are such a cliche, this one was about a batsman daring to leave the last ball of the 20th over (what turned out to be the second-last ball due to the wide) to set up a climax that was beyond the limited imagination of Bollywood sports movie script-writers.
A packed MCG chanting for Virat Kohli 🏟
Raw vision: Behind the scenes of India’s sensational win 📹
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Goosebumps. #T20WorldCup | #INDvPAK pic.twitter.com/MNjmOLKO7r
— ICC (@ICC) October 23, 2022
Enough has been written about the very eventful last moments – starting with Virat Kohli’s now-famous six off Rauf at 18.5 overs to R Ashwin’s casual scoop-drive over the in-field to the left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz on the final ball of the game.
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Beyond the magical strokes, controversial full tosses, leg-side wide, there are back stories of the four men who were under the unflinching and judgmental gaze of the fans. The two Indians – Kohli and Ashwin – are men with sparkling bodies of work but they aren’t quite the T20 masters. In contrast Haris and Nawaz are still work in progress but have skills – one a tearaway quick and the other a left-arm spinning all-rounder – to be on the shopping list of most franchise owners.
Let’s first trace Rauf’s path that took him to the top of his mark to bowl the second-last ball of his spell at MCG. He might be one of the most-feared pacers in the world but in Pakistan he is still seen as Shaheen Afridi’s wingman. Both Afridi and Rauf are Pathans, they are also best of friends. There are youtube videos of Rauf travelling to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to attend a grand iftari during Ramzan.
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The two 150-kph pacers have had contrasting career paths. Afridi is a product of the system, a teen prodigy who rose up the ranks. At 17, he was part of the Pakistan under-19 World Cup team. Rahul Dravid, the India u-19 coach, after a game told reporters that Afridi would soon be Pakistan’s national treasure. Dravid never exaggerates.
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That was the time when Rauf was a 23-year-old tape-ball mercenary. During Ramzan he would be regularly hired by teams for a heavy prize. The Rawalpindi boy had thought that his dream of representing Pakistan was over. The system had failed to mine this precious stone. Pakistan’s T20 league would bring with it several more talent scouts. The land of fast-bowlers was now better covered.
At a PSL franchise side Qalandars organised pace-hunt in Gujranwala, Rauf stood out with his pace. He was signed up and sent to Melbourne on a study tour. He would soon get the international call.
Afridi took the straight path when Rauf was on the long winding road. Fate ensured their paths crossed. They would end up as pace partners.They were compared to the two Ws. Both enjoyed instant international success but Afridi had an aura. It had a lot to do with him repeatedly exposing the Indian top-order.
At MCG on D-Day, Afridi was having a bad day at office, Rauf had a chance to be the hero of a win against India, a feat that gets you free lunches for life. Had he got Kohli in the 19th over, Rauf would have joined the legions of greats. That was not to be. Rauf ran into a man who had the daring of someone rolling his dice one-last-time. It was the all-or-nothing audacity that made Kohli hit those sixes.
So what was Kohli’s mindset when the run-rate was climbing and Rauf was stepping up the pace. Kohli and T20 have not been best of friends. It was T20 cricket that wanted Kohli, never the other way round. Kohli lent gravitas to the format that continues to fight frivolity.
Cricket’s global superstar’s refusal to tamper with his technique, was a big favour to T20. It saved its soul. In a league of big six-hitters with ripped arms, it was Kohli’s supple wrists that preserved the nuance of the old English sport.
Kohli became a T20 legend on his own terms, without getting dirty or looking ugly. The Aussie cricket writer Gideon Haigh famously wrote: “Much as the marketers would like to take the cricket out of T20, Kohli keeps putting it back.”
Before the start of the World T20, those flattering words were missing from Kohli’s appraisal. He was in the middle of a free fall. Captaincy loss, mental fatigue and questions over his status as T20I India player – failure against Pakistan would have been the final straw. The Exit sign was flickering.
Indian batter Virat Kohli raises his bat after scoring a half-century during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup cricket match between India and Bangladesh .(PTI)
At the crucial point, against Rauf, the best bowler on the day, Kohli took the ‘correct’ path. He didn’t pre-meditate, he didn’t play a panicky slog to the cow’s corner. His two sixes were a work-of-art that fused correctness, balance and a dash of arrogance. When pushed into a corner, Kohli banked on his muscle memory – the result of being true to cricket’s text books for over two decades. Watch his high elbow when he hits his first six, take note of his head perfectly over the ball when he swat flicks the second. His magic had method.
When facing a pacer whose habits had evolved on the tape-ball circuit, Kohli retained the famed purity of batsmanship. On unkept maidans and T20 leagues, Rauf had developed the guile to out-think the sloggers during death overs. The trick didn’t work against the ultimate pro, groomed under the guidance of masters of the game. Kohli didn’t pre-meditate or lose his shape. Rauf looked rattled, lost the plot, got played by Kohli. His muscle memory from his amateur days too kicked in.
Kohli would thus keep India in the game when Nawaz got the ball for the final over. The all-rounder is a soft-spoken Pathan. As a junior he started as a pacer but coaches convinced him to bowl spin. On the Pakistan cricket circuit, that is seen as a demotion.
As an under-19 cricketer traveling to South Africa, he fell for a girl who was also on the way to her home at Cape Town. They are married now and the couple share their time in Pakistan and South Africa. The 28-year-old was Pakistan’s unlikely hero in the famous Asia Cup win over India. At MCG he had a chance to enhance his reputation as a habitual India slayer.
Ashwin denied him that opportunity and used the situation to change his image from an ‘over-thinking’ to a ‘thinking’ cricketer. When he ran out Jos Buttler at the non-striker’s end during the IPL, or during the games he conceded runs because of his excessive use of carrom ball, there were those who called him too clever for cricket.
Ashwin showed how wrong the world was. He needed to score 1 run from 1 ball, the fielders were inside the circle. In this situation, most batters back away, it frees their arms to hit the ball over fielders on the off-side. Some go for a blind slog over mid-wicket. Darting the ball on the legs is an option most spinners opt for. Nawaz knew this, but so did Ashwin. By going inside the line, he forced a wide. In the space of two overs, two Indians had read the minds of the Pakistan bowlers. As former Pakistan skipper and now a pundit Rashid Latif said: “usne Engineer ka dimag dikhaya”.
In days to come, kids around India at their coaching camps would mimic Kohli’s sixes and Ashwin’s leave. In Pakistan, coaches would counsel youngsters to avoid the mistakes that Rauf and Nawaz committed. With time these stories would get exaggerated and cricket’s age-old tradition of oral story-telling will see the lead actors and their acts live forever. Down-the-memory-lane podcasts, commentators during rain breaks and bored childhood friends reliving their wonder years will keep talking about games featuring Javed Miandad-Chetan Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar-Shoaib Akhtar and the one where Kohli played like a pro and Ashwin showed Engineer ka dimaag.
Please send feedback to sandydwivedi@gmail.com
Sandeep Dwivedi
National Sports Editor
The Indian Express
