Babar Azam eleven won the semi-final on Iqbal Day, (November 9), and put smiles on everyone’s faces. Due to a public holiday, a record number of people watched this match.
Actually, not one match was played today, but two matches were being played simultaneously at the same place on the same day. One match was between Pakistan and New Zealand. The second match was between Babar Azam XI and his venomous critics. Those who were like hungry wolves were ready for Babar, Rizwan and the Pakistani team to fail and they would attack them with gnashed teeth, dripping poisonous resin, and bewilder them.
That former cricketer’s mountain-like ego stood before them, prejudice, hatred and anger have overcome their senses. Someone is angry that their favorite cricketer was not included in the national team, someone is angry at not getting an attractive job in the cricket board, and someone believes that no one can reject their advice.
Some of the former cricketers have been fired from sports channels due to their controversies, now the only source of income is YouTube and the only easy way to make a video clip go viral is to openly abuse and make offensive comments.
There is also a circle of liberals and seculars who hate religion and are angry with Bearish coaches Saqlain and Yusuf. Where did these Maulvi-looking coaches come from? Whose diction is like that of Tablighi Jamaat, who sits in the dressing room instead of making faces and yelling at bad performance, stay calm and keeps motivating the players even after the match? The religious, religious style of these coaches was painful for our liberal, secular and religion-averse circles.
Today Pakistan cricket team qualified for the final by defeating New Zealand. Along with this, Babar Azam XI has also given a toothless reply to his critics. They shut their mouths. Their poisoned arrows remained in the quiver.
After the match, when I saw these critics on TV channels, they were dumbfounded. Aqib Javed was on Geo News and continued to spew venom throughout the World Cup. It seemed as if he had a personal issue with Babar Azam. He also made a rather mean personal attack on Babar Azam. Today, after the win, Aqib’s color had darkened even more, with a sad face and a dull smile, he continued to give useless explanations, sometimes he said that our criticism was positive, sometimes some other excuse, but his tone was full of disappointment and bitterness.
Along with Younis Khan and Kamran Akmal, former cricketer Tanveer Ahmed is also hosting a program on ARY channel. Before the match against Bangladesh, when it seemed that Pakistan would not reach the semi-finals, the eggplant-like anchor of the non-serious Thali program made Younis Khan the new chairman of the cricket board.
Regarding this program, a fan tweeted that the Pakistani team will return after losing and the board management will change, he suggested that Younis Khan should be made the new chairman of the board. Even, in the same program he announced very seriously that if he becomes the chairman, he will give some important responsibility to Tanveer Ahmed. Tanveer also opened up about it, but said with an open heart he will not do any work in the cricket board.
This Tanveer Ahmed was the bowler who was given two or four Test matches, he played as a fast bowler. Tanveer disappointedly announced that Pakistan has reached the World Cup final, and now neither the captain nor anyone else will change. I laughed that the poor man’s palace of dreams was destroyed in a single day.
I was enjoying both of these matches being played simultaneously. In both of them, the victory was dedicated. Once again it was understood that criticism for the sake of criticism is always wrong, secondly, one should not make one’s opinion a problem of one’s ego, sometimes a person is wrong, and one should accept the mistake, it is more destructive to remain on it.
As for the match between Pakistan and New Zealand, the fact is that Pakistan outclassed New Zealand. Pakistan bowled well against the Kiwis, batted much better than them, our openers were much better than them, and fielding was also better than New Zealand’s.
Babar’s captaincy was also good today, otherwise, Williamson is always considered a very good and visionary captain, calm and very smart, manipulative. Babar also outclassed Williamson today.
Pakistan lost the toss, in Sydney the toss is considered important, everyone wins the toss and plays first. It was expected that if New Zealand scores a hundred and eighty runs or a little more, it will not be easy for the Pakistani team to achieve this target. But Pakistan bowled very well and restricted New Zealand to dead hundred runs. Shaheen Shah played a big role in this, who dismissed New Zealand’s dangerous opener, Finn Allen, in the first over.
In the first Powerplay i.e. six overs, Pakistani bowling was very good, especially at the end of the sixth over, the second dangerous opener Conway was also run out on a good throw by Shadab Khan. It was here that Pakistan took the lead in the match and maintained it later.
This match was also important for Shaheen Shah. This extraordinary bowler was also criticized a lot. He himself used to say that I am fit, the coach says he is fit, the medical team says he is fit, but according to our former cricketers sitting thousands of miles away, Shaheen is unfit and is being fed wrongly. Shaheen performed very well in the last two matches, he also became the man of the match in the match against Bangladesh, today in the semi-final, Shaheen Shah was the most efficient bowler of the match, he took two important wickets with very few runs.
Pakistan did the real thing in the batting as both Babar Azam and Rizwan batted brilliantly today for their good form. Babar’s first ball got an edge but later he played some very good shots, he was mid-dealing the ball well and today he played many of his trademark shots.
Babar’s technique had changed a little over time, he was playing with a relatively close bat and would rush the ball while playing crosses, he kept getting dismissed in the Asia Cup and this World Cup for that reason. Today he played a relatively open bat and he middled the balls well, played aggressive strokes and also did a good strike rotation. The same was the case with Rizwan, he was also in a very good rhythm today.
The biggest criticism of Pakistan’s opening pair is that they don’t make good use of the first six overs and make it difficult for the team in the later overs by scoring sixty-five runs in the first ten overs. Today, Babar, and Rizwan batted brilliantly in the powerplay. Scored fifty-five runs in six overs in what would be one of the best powerplay batting of the World Cup, scored eighty-five runs in ten overs and scored a hundred in eleven twelve overs. Babar and Rizwan batted in such a way that the team could have achieved the target of 185 runs.
Pakistan won today’s match by fighting very well. Their opponent in the final will be determined tomorrow in the semi-finals. Get ready for a very high-profile World Cup final if India make it to the final. If England reach it, it will be a very interesting situation, because in 1992, Pakistan won the World Cup by defeating the English team.
The World Cup final will be played on Sunday. Best wishes to Pakistan.
