Afghanistan cool chase against frazzled Pakistan
A tribute to the great Bishen Singh Bedi. Also, is India the best strike bowling team ever?
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This World Cup’s greatest banana peel is back at it. Pakistan started well until Imam saw a short ball. Afghanistan used all their spinners, including Noor Ahmad, to just chip away and when Babar Azam slapped a half-tracker to cover, they had their shot. Pakistan’s all-rounders bludgeoned 40s to give them 282, which was around par.
Then Rahmanullah Gurbaz did his thing, as Pakistan sprayed the ball around. But most importantly Ibrahim and Rahmat played proper innings, and then the captain came in and was just as on top. Pakistan cycled through six bowlers, jumped over balls, and had no real idea how to change anything. And the only good news right now is that Pakistan is still on top of England in the table.
But this is all about Afghanistan. In 2019, I was following the team around as they unravelled. They were fighting with each other, and the board, and the entire thing felt like it was about to collapse. Four years later they have beaten two World Cup winners, and they just chased more against Pakistan than any team ever has in a World Cup. And they did it like they were heading to the shops to pick up some milk.
What a chase.
The 17th biggest chase in World Cup history (JK)
I know 282 doesn’t seem like a lot, but in the history of World Cups, only 16 teams have ever chased more. We don’t see a lot of these kinds of innings in World Cups. And even more than that, you don’t usually lose two wickets. Only twice in World Cups have more runs been chased with fewer wickets, one was New Zealand against England.
The fact that they did this so easily is a huge part of the story. Because we have seen them ride emotion, or get energy from wickets. This was adult batting at a time that if they failed, we all would have said, that is more than fair.
Ibrahim’s innings (JK)
So the difference between teams who can spoil, and teams who can make the semi-finals is consistent batting. I think we are seeing at this tournament that the teams who cannot put regular totals on the board just aren’t in the conversation. When Ibrahim Zadran came in, there was a thought he might be the kind of player they needed.
Then they came to the World Cup and he couldn’t get going. He could handle the new ball, but the big runs that he was starting to get known for just stopped. Today was the kind of innings he can play. And by being so steady, it just never gave Pakistan a chance at all. Compare this to the England game, where they had Gurbaz going crazy, a collapse in the middle, and then the tail saved them.
Players like Ibrahim allow them to play the proper way, which is repeatable.
Afghanistan use a lot of spin (SAK)
Afghanistan have basically spun themselves to two victories against the defending champions and their ‘rivals’. Of course, their batters have also stepped up which was a problem coming into the WC, but the primary reason for their success is the fact that their spinners take wickets and keep things tight.
So we looked up the teams with the most spin-overs in this tournament, and they are comfortably on top here. Totally adds up. They are also the 4th most economical spin unit behind India, SA (who are low usage) and NZ. Their average is a bit too high though (3rd worst), which was surprising but the India and Bangladesh games probably didn’t help their case too much. They are yet to play Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, will be interesting to see how far they can go from here.
Noor Ahmad (JK)
They bowl a lot of spin, and they are good at it. And today we saw Noor Ahmad, who is an incredibly talented player.
But on top of being really good, he is also really odd. This is all the bowlers who have bowled left-arm wrist spin in ODIs in the last three years. So just being one is odd I suppose. But outside of Rippon, the former Dutch Kiwi bowler who barely plays, all the other southpaw wrist spinners bowl over the wicket to right-handers. Noor comes around the wicket.
It means he is completely different. More like a left-arm finger spinner who bowls wrong’uns. And this allows him to beat batters with topspin and bounce, but still keep that killer left-arm orthodox action. The fact he can do both is the key, because the other angle works well, but today Pakistan really struggled with this.
Babar Azam & Abdullah Shafique (SAK)
I thought Babar Azam started quite well today. He came out with positive intent and looked in pretty good nick. But he really got stuck up in the middle of the innings. He took 29 balls to score only 15 runs. He didn’t accelerate too well after his half-century, scoring 24 runs at just above run a ball. You can see that he had a decent scoring rate against Omarzai and Noor Ahmad, but Rashid Khan really managed to keep him quiet - he’s got him out 7 times before today in all professional cricket. Nabi is one of the most economical bowlers this World Cup, and Babar has been slow against off-spin in recent times.
Abdullah Shafique now has a hundred and 2 fifties from his first 4 World Cup matches. He is definitely a player to watch out for in the future.
Imam-ul-Haq and the short ball (SAK)
This is now the 3rd time Imam has been dismissed by the short ball in this tournament. This is a major problem, and Pakistan have to try and find a solution. They are yet to play England, South Africa and New Zealand in this tournament - all of those sides have pacers that will look to exploit this very obvious weakness. Will they bring back Fakhar, or look at another option if this continues?
Death overs hitting (SAK)
Pakistan added 96 runs from their last 10 overs today. Iftikhar and Shadab tackled this phase really well. We know about ‘Ifti-Mania’ and the hitting prowess he possesses. However, today he was 2 off 10 at one point. But he didn’t get impatient and he managed to bat till the 50th over. It was important that these two stuck around because Shaheen was at number 8, the Evan Gulbis conundrum.
Pakistan in the field (JK)
Imam-Ul-Haq has become an expert at diving over the bal is what Ramiz Raja said. Remember that this game Pakistan was playing for their World Cup hopes. And they did not look like they were on their game on the field. Singles were easy, bad balls a plenty early on and fumbles into the padded Toblerone were what we saw.
We saw them get together all the time to try and work this out. The drinks breaks were more like really annoying team meetings where someone was yelling at them. But nothing worked.
This came up from the broadcasters at one stage, and it’s interesting. One thing to note is that Haris wasn’t really wide. But modern players are so much better at taking advantage of small errors. But once he was hit, he stayed that wide and he kept going.
The thing is, all the Pakistan bowlers have struggled. Shaheen is clearly not at his best. Hasan Ali has tried hard but seems to be missing a yard. Haris Rauf hasn’t had much of an impact since bullying the Netherlands. Shadab Khan’s arse is still an issue. Nawaz has struggled in a tournament where the finger spinners have done well. And Usama Mir has come in to bring wickets, and he’s getting heaved everywhere. Only the part-time if Iftikhar is standing up.
Factor in that their batters aren’t looking as automatic as they should be. So they aren’t bowling with the runs behind them they normally would. But, they’ve been trash. It’s like a tyre fire with no end in sight.
Bishen Singh Bedi
You start with the flight. Even in his era spinners were starting to get quicker. Chandresaker and Underwood were quick, and that was part of their deadliness. Bishen Bedi was slow, his balls took their time, and they had a narrative. Even when the batter knew what the story was, Bishen Bedi sucked him in.
You watch him bowl and it was a dream. Some left-arm finger spin lover went to bed one night, and their vision was Bedi gently ambling up to the crease and curving the ball down to leg and straightening it to off. It was as if he floated to the crease and delivered whispers. It was so pure, you felt like you could drink it. It looked so easy too. You could see a bunch of kids watching him once, and running back to the maidan or park to try it themselves. Bedi would bowl all day, with only small changes in pace or flight.
But it wasn’t just aesthetics, he had serious skills. When he retired he had the most wickets of any Indian. This was the era in which Indian cricket began to move. The quartet of spin he was part of was the spine of Indian cricket back then.
He also ended with a bowling average of under 30. A fantastic effort in that period of time for a finger spinner. There are no bad bowlers on this list, so to end up with the best average is not nothing.
You can also see this is a man who also took his wickets worldwide. Obviously, at his best in Asia, his record at home was 23. But he was fantastic in Australia and New Zealand. His bowling travelled. And even when he didn’t take wickets, no one could score off him.
He bought that time ofcourse. Because he was the fourth most economical bowler in the history of Tests. He was deadly accurate, and you had to take a chance off him, and he was willing to wait.
He would also be willing to wait all innings long. Well, all game long really. First three innings he would often tread water. But when he got to the fourth, he was the attacker. Just dominating batters and no one could hit him.
You can see by his strike rate it was just at the end. The rest of the game people couple keep him at bay. The third-highest strike rate ever. The top two in front of him both played on incredibly flat wickets often during the period when no one took a lot of wickets. So adjusted for the era, no man showed more patience than Bishen Bedi.
But I don’t want to make him seem like a zen guy, because he had fire. In fact, his late career in the media was often fun because of the often unhinged moments he had. He said what he said, and you had to deal with it.
Like when he let India lose a match in one of the most famous Tests of all time at Sabina Park to protest the West Indies’ bowling tactics. And also because most of the team was hurt from the aforementioned bowling.
It is an extraordinary thing to do just end your innings halfway through. But he was the kind of man. We saw that from the first ball until the last hot take. He played cricket his way.
During his era, he took the second most wickets. If you look at the bowlers around him, they are the other spinners. Underwood, Chandrasekhar and Gibbs are the top four. All spinners. And so this was the end of that slow bowling era. And that West Indian team he is forever linked to was the one that changed it.
But there is one thing not even they managed to do. Yes, we talk about his art, his patience, his fire and the bluntness off the field. But let’s end here, Bishen Bedi is the greatest fourth-innings bowler in the history of our sport. No one else is even clseo. His average is 14.46 and teams couldn’t even manage two runs against him. Bishen Bedi was a dream to watch, and at the end of the game, a nightmare to face.
To quote John Keats, A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
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