To say that this was an unusual day in the life of Shoaib Akhtar
and of Pakistan cricket in general would be a gross
understatement. To postulate that it was momentous probably would
not be overselling the position either. In whatever manner it is
described, though, it is likely that it will ultimately be one
upon which he and his Pakistani teammates will look back with
supreme fondness; a forty-five run victory over Australia in the
opening match of the Carlton and United Series here in Brisbane
coming at the end of an extraordinary twenty-four hours of action
both on and off the field.
The day started, in fact, with the young paceman at the
completely opposite end of the country to the one in which this
match was being played. Indeed, he was in Perth - around five
hours away by plane - and seemingly not in any position to play
in this match at all. That he should have been so distant, and
not with his countrymen, was the legacy of the much publicised
decision eleven days ago of the International Cricket Council
(ICC) to ban him from all cricket on account of an allegedly
suspect bowling action.
It was in the early hours of the morning that matters began to
change markedly for him. It was then that he was provided with
the news that chairman Jagmohan Dalmiya, on behalf of the ICC,
had decided to lift the ban - although whether the reprieve is
temporary or permanent appears to remain unclear. And, although
his humiliation was not completely over - for he was surrounded
and jostled by waiting cameramen (at the core of a general media
scrum) after being escorted to the ground late in a four wheel
drive vehicle - it was from there that the portents for a
remarkable day of cricket began to be set in place.
Initially, Pakistan struggled on the field of play. Indeed, after
winning the toss and electing to bat, the visitors laboured
badly, collapsing to a mark of 6/60 at one stage in an innings
which was generally devoid of any real momentum. The first wicket
- that of Mohammad Wasim (0) - was surrendered in just the second
over and the top and middle order fell with almost equivalent
frequency thereafter. Against a persistently accurate attack, and
in the face of some fine all round fielding, the Pakistanis were
never able to garner any real sense of resistance; only a fortythree run partnership between Wasim Akram (35) and Moin Khan (33)
for the seventh wicket and then an unexpected yet brilliantly
steadfast one of fifty-seven for the ninth between Saqlain
Mushtaq (37*) and Waqar Younis (23*) offering salvation. It was
symbolic indeed that even the first two of those batsmen fell to
appalling pieces of judgement - Moin out to a loosely top edged
sweep at Shane Warne and Wasim suicidally setting off for a
single after pushing a shot virtually straight to Ricky Ponting
at extra cover.
It would have been hard to imagine that anything but the opposite
mood would have been prevailing within the Australian camp at
that stage. After losing the toss and on a generally true pitch,
they in fact hardly put a foot wrong until the moment at which
Saqlain and Waqar were brought together. Glenn McGrath (who
claimed 1/35 off his ten overs despite conceding a massive
seventeen runs from the final over of the innings) and local hero
Adam Dale (1/19 off ten) set the tone with excellent opening
spells, maintaining a perfect length and moving the ball both
ways to the general discomfiture of each of the batsmen to whom
they bowled. And while both Warne (2/52) and one-day
international debutant Brett Lee (0/39) were at far from their
best, it scarcely mattered; particularly once part time medium
pacer Andrew Symonds (3/34) had cut an early swathe of his own
through the Pakistani order.
But, for as one-sided as the affair seemed in a season of
lopsided matches, there was still at least one more dramatic
Shoaib-inspired twist to follow. Essentially, it arrived in the
sixteenth over of the Australian innings with the locals
apparently cruising to victory on the back of a rapid fire
partnership of fifty-three runs for the second wicket between
Ponting (32) and Adam Gilchrist (27). More specifically, it came
in the form of two wickets in successive balls in the sixteenth
over for the paceman, whose success (together with the generous,
moving support afforded him by a huge 'Gabba crowd) must surely
have swelled tears in more than one eye on what was a public
holiday back in his home nation.
Bowling wholeheartedly, with sheer energy and aggression, and in
front of a panoply of flashing camera bulbs, he first removed
Ponting with a delightful leg cutter that was edged straight to
second slip and then followed up with a scorching off cutter that
trapped Australian captain Steve Waugh (0) palpably lbw. Later,
he foxed Dale (15) into spooning a shot to cover but, after that,
there was little more that he needed to do in the way of wickettaking and his final figures of 3/31 from seven overs spoke
loudly of the extent of his triumph.
Inspired by their brave teammate's burst, Shoaib's fellow pacemen
then exposed further, and ultimately fatal, weaknesses in a
suddenly brittle Australia's defences. Man of the match Abdur
Razzaq (4/23) was the first to join in, doing so emphatically as
he also claimed wickets with successive deliveries in a stunning
spell of his own. He induced an always uncomfortable-looking
Damien Martyn (4) to drive away from his body to gully to end a
poor innings; forced Symonds (0) to retreat after edging his
first ball to second slip with his next ball; and then smeared
the stumps of Lee (2) with a glorious inswinging yorker.
As Australia crashed to lose five wickets for seven runs in the
process, so the crowd seemed to lose its previously deafening
voice and so indeed thoughts turned to their team's inability to
find its way to a better position than this after having their
opponents not only 6/60 but also 8/127 earlier in the day. It was
merely left to Waqar (2/25) to wrap up the exhibition at 139
around yet another innings of sheer defiance from Michael Bevan
(31*) and another of significant courage from an injured Shane
Warne (9).
Polemics will doubtless follow this day's cricket and Dalmiya's
actions, coming as they do at the end of a remarkable fortnight,
during which the very validity of Shoaib's immediate future as an
international cricketer has hung gravely in the balance. As
things stand now, cricket seems as far away from an answer to the
whole contentious issue of chucking as it has ever done. Even the
ICC's actions in forming a panel to scrutinise suspect actions
and supposedly ease the pressure upon umpires who seek to no-ball
apparently thrown deliveries appears only to have inadvertently
exacerbated the difficulties which apply in such circumstances.
Although the ban on Shoaib actually made for this most emotional
of re-appearances, cricket's authorities should indeed hang their
heads in shame that it should ever have come to this. This whole
saga has been a mess and that it leaves the players and all who
follow the game in such confusion is a matter of serious regret.