I congratulate our team for playing well and wish them all the best in future games
ISLAMABAD: Before our team landed in Australia, one of the other team’s players sarcastically announced that our team was in Australia this time, not Dubai. This made me shudder with fear for our team’s performance in a country so hostile where playing and environmental conditions were abnormal. In the first innings, the fears came through when, in response to the Australians’ first innings score of 429, our batting line completely and quite miserably collapsed at only 140. It was expected that Pakistan would lose the match by a huge margin, supporting the arrogant claims of the Australian player. The start of the match reinforced the fears of another collapse of Pakistani batting. However, Pakistan fought back and did so with style and galore. Australia was pushed back at one stage and all the commentators and experts were contemplating the unthinkable — that is, a Pakistani victory.
We lost the match in the end, but we went down fighting, which has not only bolstered our team’s shattered confidence, but also sent a clear signal to the Aussies not to take our team for granted. Although there is room for improvement from some players and we should learn from our mistakes, I congratulate our team for playing well and wish them all the best in future games.
Raja Shafaatullah
Published in The Express Tribune, December 21st, 2016.
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