For the generation of Indians once haunted by the memory of Javed Miandad’s last ball sixer, the past few years have been a journey of redemption.
Since that fateful Sharjah match, India found itself in numerous favourable positions against Pakistan, only to lose in the most unexpected ways.
As a reverse jinx, the famous Virat Kohli’s 18.5 and 18.6 sixes seem to have a lasting impact on the Pakistani T20 team’s psyche.
The Pakistani contingent, including the commentators on television, appeared cautious even when they had seven wickets, six overs and only 40 runs to get.
Waqar Younis and Ramiz Raja were worried more about Jasprit Bumrah’s upcoming two overs than the relatively easy task that the Pakistani team faced.
Even the broadcaster’s win predictor gave Pakistan a 92 per cent chance to win.
When your mind is scared, no amount of logical reassurance is sufficient. India overturned the hopeless position for the second T20 WC match in a row and won the game by a whisker.
Batting
The pitch in New York has been challenging to score, as seen from the first game of this tournament.
It offers steep bounce from a good length, and before it bounces, the ball seems to hold a bit longer on the surface; Cricket experts call this a tennis ball-like bounce.
On a pitch that offers such bounce, it is hard for the batter to “play on the up” and drive the ball down on the ground.
In this game against Pakistan, we saw many Indian batters offer easy catches when they tried to drive on the up.
Having seen games play out before on this ground, I expected the Indian batters to bat in such a way to get 140 in 20 overs rather than aiming for a score of 160 or above.
India was lucky that Rishabh Pant’s many miscued hits did not cost him his wicket early. Without Pant’s chancy 40, India would have found themselves with a no-hope score to defend.
On the other hand, Pakistan knew the score to chase and batted appropriately until Mohamed Rizwan’s wild swipe across the line. The Pakistani batting unit is bereft of talent and depends on players like Rizwan to carry the bat.
Having done the hard work till the 14th over, Rizwan played an ugly “get me bowled” shot to India’s best bowler, Jasprit Bumrah.
Once Rizwan was gone, the remaining Pakistani batters did not have enough skill to score runs against the accurate Indian attack.
Naseem Shah, once again, at the end, showed that he could be batting a lot higher as a pinch hitter. Pakistan should use his batting abilities far better than they are using him here.
Bowling
If there is a pitch that offers multiple ways for bowlers to succeed, this pitch in New York is it.
The pitch offered uncomfortable spongy bounce for the fast bowlers, turn and grip for the spinners and a big outfield to prevent mishits from landing beyond the boundary.
All the bowlers had to do was pitch the ball at a good length and prevent batters from getting to the pitch of the ball. All the bowlers thrived in these conditions except those who tended to bowl a fuller length.
Mohammed Amir and Nassem Shah were the standout fast bowlers for Pakistan. Naseem’s stock delivery is back of a length, and he proved challenging to get away.
Mohammed Amir, who usually strives to swing the ball, pulled his length back and used the scrambled seam to fox the Indian batters.
Imad Wasim, a spinner, used the flatter trajectory and still extracted a sharp turn from the pitch to tie the Indian batters down.
Even Rishabh Pant, who plays left-arm orthodox spinners brilliantly, could not score freely off Imad. The Pakistani attack managed to keep India at least 15 runs below par.
Indian bowlers, who are equally as good as Pakistan’s, hit the right line and length from the start of the innings.
Except for the first few deliveries from Arshdeep, where he bowled full, expecting to swing, the bowlers tried to hit the deck at a good length more often.
Even the spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel pulled their length back, bowled flat, and exploited the bounce to beat the horizontal bat shots of the Pakistani batters.
The one-time Axar bowled slowly and gave air to the ball, Fakhar Zaman danced down the pitch and launched him into the stands.
Jasprit Bumrah, the hero of this game, was tough to get away for the Pakistani batter.
Bumrah bowled like Bumrah usually does, and the pitch did the rest. Even when he bowled the rare full toss, the batters were so tied down before that they lacked the rhythm to hit the ball into the stands.
We could see this in how Iftikhar Ahmed, a clean ball striker, failed to punish the two full tosses Bumrah bowled in the 19th over.
Unlike that match in Melbourne, this match did not have a magical delivery or ultra-human shot to describe. It was a game of attrition in which the team that made fewer mistakes won.
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