Whenever Pakistan and India engage on any front - whether it is politics or sports - emotions run high.
Recently, when the two arch-rivals met each other in the final of the 1st Asia Cup for Blind at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Jan 24, no one would have thought that the undefeated team of the tournament, Pakistan would go down so easily against India.
Everyone at the stadium were of the view that beating Pakistan will be a huge task for the host team. Even members of the Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi and Nepalese teams backed Pakistan as hot favourites.
In Pakistan too, million of fans were expecting their team to hoist the country’s green flag on Indian soil after winning the 1st Asia Cup for Blind.
However, when the Indians set a tough target of 209 to chase after batting first in the final, the Pakistan camp was definitely nervous.
Though, they had won every league match before the final, the Greenshirts were mindful of India’s accurate bowling and outstanding fielding and knew that winning will be no easy task since Pakistan batting had struggled throughout the tournament.
As the innings began, Pakistan quickly lost four batsmen for just 40.
That included some of world record holders as well who returned to the pavilion rather cheaply. The crowd at the stadium went delirious with joy. Of course, they were not expecting Pakistan to buckle down like this. It was 37 degree Celsius and yet I broke out in cold sweat while sitting under the dugout.
At the same time, however, I was cheering my team, hoping for any of the remaining batsmen to play a heroic knock and do Pakistan proud by clinching the coveted title on the Indian soil. But it was not to be.
Captain Anees Javed and Aamir Ashfaq temporarily tried to resist the Indian bowlers but the home team fielders did brilliantly well to run out as many as five of our players and the Pakistan innings folded up in just 18.2 overs for 163.
Here I would like to make an observation. In 2012, Pakistan who were then world champions of blind cricket, were shocked by India in Bangalore. Since then, I have noticed a certain pattern emerging in the on-field cricket battles between the two countries where the psychological factor has played a big part.
While Pakistan blind cricketers are no less talented and competitive, India have beaten us in the T20 World Cup Final in 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa, in the One Day International World Cup and now the Asia Cup. That makes it a hat-trick of wins for India.
In this tournament, most of the Pakistani batsmen never really got going. Our matches could show only two half centuries scored during the entire tournament. Captain Anees Javed compiled 92 runs in four matches, Bader Muneer 76 in four, vice captain Nisar Ali 63 and Aamir Ashfaq 62 in three.
In comparison, the Indian side did brilliantly well. Prakash Jay was awarded Batsman of the Tournament for his magnificent 253 runs in 4 innings with an average of 84 including a hundred and a fifty.
Ketan Patel was the second best batsman with a total of 226 including a hundred and a fifty in four innings. Indian captain Ajay Kumar Reddy, too, played superbly and had an aggregate of 184 including a hundred and 5 wickets in the event.
Pakistan’s overall performance in the Asia Cup for Blind has been disappointing which is a real cause of concern for the office bearers of Pakistan Blind Cricket Council, the chief selector and coach.
The T20 World Cup for Blind will be held in India wduring November this year and we will have to pull up our socks if we are to make an impact there.
The writer is media manager of Pakistan Blind Cricket Team
Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2016
