Match Box (A victory that took 15 years in the making)

Scenario; Pakistan is taking on Australia in a test match away from home. What happens? What comes to your mind? Yup, "OMG! Another loss?!"...Such is the dominance of Australia over Pakistan in recent times that almost every Pakistani cricket fan links Australia to being unbeatable, especially when we are not playing on the dead plasticine pitches of Pakistan.


So here goes...you switch on the TV and hear the news channels bustling about a rare victory, you sit bolt upright "No, It cannot be...", you stammer. Eyes wide open. You pinch yourself to make sure it is not a dream and it isn't!!! Pakistan have finally overcome the fifteen year old jinx of not winning a test match away or at home against the mighty Aussies!!! July the 24th 2010 remember the date!!


And Ah! If you had been one of those ardent supporter of the Pakistani team like me, you should have been sitting before th TV screen an hour before the match was scheduled to begin! Alas, you never witness such spectacles everyday [the last time Pakistan beat the Aussies in a test match was when I was three =P]. So you have a bag of popcorns at hand, ready to relish a distinguished battle being won! But being a Pakistani cricket team fan is a pain of its own, requiring just 40 runs with 7 wickets in the bank you assume quite wrongly that it would be an easy win...


The two overnight batsmen walk in, Azhar Ali and Umar Akmal..apparently oozing with confidence..


First ball, full toss, whacked for four, you toss a handful of popcorns into your mouth. "This gonna be a piece of cake", you say to anyone within earshot and you haven't taken down the first batch of popcorns and pop goes Azhar Ali back to the hut. Your mouth hangs open in apparent dispair, half-chewed popcorns streaming down your chin and into your lap..."Oh God! Not again!!", you mutter inaudibly.


And out comes the husband of Sania Mirza...associating this guy with cricket is a shame,you remember a news piece, and you call out disgustfully "Pagal kahee ka, team meeting chor ke Sania ko London dekhata phrta hai!!". You sigh and settle in again. Block: Block: Swing and a miss: Block: Appeal: Left Alone: Block. You start getting nervy and you demand from the on-screen Umar Akmal "yar chake choke laga! ye kia khel rha hai?" And even before your painful plea is fully out of your mouth...Umar Akmal is snared by Hilfenhaus...and the ghost of the Sydney test suddenly becomes active in the core of your poor little heart... adrenaline starts rampaging through your blood stream...your heart starts beating like a sledgehammer against your heaving chest!


You go up with every lbw appeal, every swing-and-miss and every ball that just about kisses the blade through to the keeper or the slip squadron. Finally some runs...as Malik clips a ball off his pads...and then....EDGES but it drops just wide of the diving Clarke at 3rd slips...you get all the more nervy..."Ai allah madad farmana!!"...


Then Malik in the next over tried all his very best to lob the ball to North at short extra-cover and finally succeeds in doing so off the ultimate ball of the over, you get crude, abuses start spewing out of your mouth, popcorns rain down to the carpeted floor as you shake and writhe with a mixture of anger and agony.


In walks Aamer...you see his confident face and suddenly you get a bit relieved...like after balm is applied on chapped lips..."He scored 70-odd in that Kiwi match", you whisper huskily to the sibling near you,"He can bat!"...he gets beaten first up...you shiver...then solidly defends the next few balls and some of your faith in him returns...


Four! Kamran drives, the spectators roar...you nearly fall of your seat..."Alhamdullilah", you call in your heart. And then all of a sudden you realize that Kamran is Pakistan's only hope and you start phooking kalam at the on-screen Akmal in a frenzy...


Well your phooking had some good effect on Akmal who cracks two fours in Hilfenhaus's next over...bringing Pakistan closer...you start to look like an archetype of utter bliss...


And oh no! Kamran slashes at a wide delivery and Hussey pouches it at gully....your hearts sinks, your eyes become watery and you cry out Noooooo--- but your cry is interrupted midway as the truth dawns upon you...the 3rd Umpire has been called in...Kamran doesn't look happy...He and you staunchly believe that it hasn't carried....and you start a gardan of "Nhe hua, Nhee hua, Nhee hua!"...the TV grabs are all hazy and you pray that the benefit goes to the batsman and it does! You roar as the rafters are brought down by the Pakistani contingent at Headingley!!!


Aamer vs Hilfenhaus..."Please ye over kisi tarah nikal le", you call out! And oh! Aamer has edged this one past third slip for Four!!!! HOHOOOOOOO you are just a run away now...bouncers follow but it doesn't matter...we have won or have we...


In the next over Akmal goes after a Johnson half volley only to have a thick edge and this time it is a clean take by a diving Hussey who looks toward Akmal and the Umpire with both the question and the answer in his eyes...and you cannot believe it...so near yet so far away...here comes Gul....


The tension builds up, Johnson steams in, bowls the effort bowl, and it is his lackluster wide half volley, Gul goes after it, connects, it stays in the air but beyond the diving short cover and to the boundary...Gul leaps, you leap...."Yesss---", you scream in mid-air, but before you have hit the ground you pass into a coma...

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