In Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan, most of the narratives are underpinned on an impossibility. It should not be possible for the villagers to beat the British — it is not their sport to begin with, and so the team of uninitiated villagers they assemble is haphazard, the equipment they use is makeshift.

They had some tricks up their sleeve though — the type of craftsmanship in sport that can only truly be borne by people who haven’t been indoctrinated by the rules. An enigmatic captain, a mystery spinner in Kachra whose bowling action kept the British confused.

But despite the zeal and the hours of training and the quirks of everyone involved, beating the British cavalry required a lot more than good cricket — it required not just this band of mismatched players to play out of their skins, but also for a certain level of divine intervention for things to go right.

It is disingenuous to compare Pakistan to a band of people playing cricket for the first time, even if the opposition was, fittingly, a side with both superior skill and institutional leverage. But at points, it did feel like the team that showed up to play against India was playing the sport for the first time.

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