All was happening as the pundits had predicted, with New Zealand hobbling to yet another lackluster performance in a One Day International, until one man showed us how to win Cricket matches by obliterating belief and destroying spirits of a team. On his birthday, Ross Taylor’s planets, stars, satellites, meteors, moons, suns and random unidentified terrestrial objects were perfectly aligned, and he didn’t need any of it. The mild mannered and unassuming man from New Zealand showed the brutal, merciless and inhuman violence that he is capable of. The war cry after reaching the century spoke volumes about how much it meant for Taylor, and the faces in the dressing room told us how uplifting this experience was for this team that has almost forgotten how to celebrate. ICC is checking with the Sri Lankan Government if all that transpired was legal, and Taylor might be facing criminal prosecution for the unprecedented violence he unleashed on the Pakistanis.
The Pakistani team was the perfectly-bonding-having-fun-out-there band of brothers for about 43 overs of the first half. They looked very much like a single unit with a plan and a focused objective. But shortly thereafter they looked like eleven amateurs completely disjointed, disoriented and independent of each other, running around without a leader, thought-process or a sense of direction. Bowlers bowled wides on both sides of the wicket, juicy half volleys followed by juicier full tosses and eventually came undone with their confidence completely annihilated. The only respite came when they needed a new ball between the sixes that landed in neighboring countries. Afridi turned from the clapping-encouraging Captain to the yelling-machine, and finally to the quiet-personification of grief who wanted to crawl under the sofa and die. Pakistan showed the ominous inability to endure pressure as a single unit. The team that had sailed through this tournament embarrassingly disintegrated at the first sign of pressure.
The batting effort that followed further showed how deflating Taylor’s knock had been. This Pakistani team would have backed themselves to get 300 on any other day and twice on Sunday, but the batters that came out just seemed dazed, sleep-walking through a chase that was already a lost cause in their minds. Batsmen batted like they needed 5 from 2 balls, instead of 250 from 34 overs. There was no application or effort to build partnerships which resulted in a meaningless bat-swinging fest that felt more like revenge than a thought-out plan for victory.
Apart from the skill issues, Pakistan needs to address their inability to respond to pressure situations. They need to work on their Plan B’s and C’s and ZZ’s, and be able to bounce back when backed into a corner. These are issues that just cannot be sorted out in tough net practice sessions. These are issues that need inspiration, dynamic leadership and most importantly a belief in their abilities to stick together as a team and back themselves to win from tough situations.
For New Zealand, they will look back and know that there are multiple issues to be fixed, but the one thing that they are not going miss is, Inspiration. Taylor became the hero who stood up and delivered one of the best ODI innings ever. He uplifted a team and a nation today, and gave the Kiwis a reason to believe, which was half snatched away from, and half surrendered by, the Pakistanis.
The tournament that seemed like hobbling towards yet another lackluster week just came alive today.
Pay attention people, This World Cup has arrived.
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