The morning after — another defeat
Why Pakistan's recent struggles against India is nothing to worry about
PHOTO: AFP
KARACHI:
Our pride may keep us from openly admitting it, but yes, the defeat to India hurts. In the aftermath, some of us may pretend to not care about cricket, but the truth is life would have been a little bit better, a little bit sweeter had Pakistan beaten India yesterday.
Even the thought of shooing away the monkey — or should I say the King Kong — of never beating our cross-border rivals at a world event feels alleviating.
India repeat history, beat Pakistan in World T20
But since that didn't happen, a large majority of us will take to social media to vent our frustration at, with the team in general, and the captain in particular, being our obvious target.
'They're not worth their salt' would be a popular opinion, while some short-fused would swear never to watch cricket ever again — a promise they will keep, but only until the next Indo-Pak match.
Shocking tactics lead to another chastening defeat
The memes, the tweets, the viral videos, the photoshops, in fact every single thing for the next 24 hours would aim to humiliate the national team.
But wait a minute. Are these over-the-top reactions even necessary? That's because a cursory glance at the head-to-head record of the two teams shows that Pakistan leads India in both the major formats. In Test, we've won 12 as compared to nine victories for India, whereas the count is 72-51 in our favour in ODIs.
Granted that we've beaten India just once in seven T20I outings, but the numbers prove that a country of 200 million has clearly had the upper hand over a rival five or six times its size, all things considered. Big-match choking aside, the Men in Green have delivered far more Ws than Ls, which is a major feat considering the size of the opposition.
From broken hearts to broken TV sets, fans react to Pakistan’s defeat
The only problem is that the fans' memories are short, and a vast majority of our wins came before the social media exploded into the monster it is now. Back in the day, when India lost, their moments of infamy did not get pointed out and bandied around on Facebook like ours do now. Add to it our newfound habit of thinking the worst about ourselves and the whole thing turns into a self-loathing contest.
It doesn't mean we are not on an unenviable streak, but let's find solace in our overall domination of India on the cricket field. What we're feeling now, our rivals fans have on many a time. Our record, which even now stands at 85-66 in our favour, is taking a bit of a correction following decades of upsurge. It's normal, it happens in sports and it's nothing to lose sleep over.
Our pride may keep us from openly admitting it, but yes, the defeat to India hurts. In the aftermath, some of us may pretend to not care about cricket, but the truth is life would have been a little bit better, a little bit sweeter had Pakistan beaten India yesterday.
Even the thought of shooing away the monkey — or should I say the King Kong — of never beating our cross-border rivals at a world event feels alleviating.
India repeat history, beat Pakistan in World T20
But since that didn't happen, a large majority of us will take to social media to vent our frustration at, with the team in general, and the captain in particular, being our obvious target.
'They're not worth their salt' would be a popular opinion, while some short-fused would swear never to watch cricket ever again — a promise they will keep, but only until the next Indo-Pak match.
Shocking tactics lead to another chastening defeat
The memes, the tweets, the viral videos, the photoshops, in fact every single thing for the next 24 hours would aim to humiliate the national team.
But wait a minute. Are these over-the-top reactions even necessary? That's because a cursory glance at the head-to-head record of the two teams shows that Pakistan leads India in both the major formats. In Test, we've won 12 as compared to nine victories for India, whereas the count is 72-51 in our favour in ODIs.
Granted that we've beaten India just once in seven T20I outings, but the numbers prove that a country of 200 million has clearly had the upper hand over a rival five or six times its size, all things considered. Big-match choking aside, the Men in Green have delivered far more Ws than Ls, which is a major feat considering the size of the opposition.
From broken hearts to broken TV sets, fans react to Pakistan’s defeat
The only problem is that the fans' memories are short, and a vast majority of our wins came before the social media exploded into the monster it is now. Back in the day, when India lost, their moments of infamy did not get pointed out and bandied around on Facebook like ours do now. Add to it our newfound habit of thinking the worst about ourselves and the whole thing turns into a self-loathing contest.
It doesn't mean we are not on an unenviable streak, but let's find solace in our overall domination of India on the cricket field. What we're feeling now, our rivals fans have on many a time. Our record, which even now stands at 85-66 in our favour, is taking a bit of a correction following decades of upsurge. It's normal, it happens in sports and it's nothing to lose sleep over.