Pakistan’s madness, and the horrible bouts of sanity in between

The team either loses its marbles, or loses its matches

KARACHI:

There was a feeling that things could not get much worse for Pakistan after the debacle of the ODI series, but when openers Muhammad Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad were dismissed with the score at just 7-2 in the first Test, captain Misbahul Haq would surely have been fearing the worst.

But back Pakistan into a corner at your own expense. On the back of an ODI whitewash, devoid of their entire bowling attack, two of their best batsmen back in the hut and facing a pumped up bowling attack that featured Mitchell Johnson, Pakistan did what only they can in the face of such adversity: explode.

After that first session, which ended at 50-2, it wasn’t until the first session of day five of the second Test that a session belonged to Australia; more than 50 hours of continuous and almost utter domination. And just like in all of Pakistan’s best recent performances, they took refuge in madness.

Many would argue it was the sanity of Younus Khan that guided Pakistan through in that first innings but Younus proved not that long ago that he also hails from the same philosophy of madness that the rest of the team adheres to.

Many a talented Pakistani player [read: Shoaib Akhtar] has seen his career hampered or ended due to what he said. Younus was made an exception, but he could so easily have not been. After all, a disgruntled 36-year-old is expendable and the ODI forms of both Fawad Alam and Umar Akmal could very easily have justified their inclusion into the side. Instead, he came out to bat with the score at 7-2 — despite earlier claiming he does not want to be part of the Test squad — and was dismissed 191 runs later, having made a statement 106.

Pakistan’s madness, however, was not yet finished. Sarfraz Ahmed is Pakistan’s best wicketkeeper; he has been so for quite a while. But he was often overlooked due to his weak batting. He promptly made a hundred off just 80 balls with some incredibly aggressive batting.

Meanwhile, Younus continued to break the records, one after the other, in the first three Pakistani innings of the series, scoring 422 at an average of 211. In the final one, he was dismissed for 46 and in stepped Misbah. Azhar Ali was on 66, the lead was 461 and for all intents and purposes, the cricketing world expected the captain to farm the strike out to Azhar so that he scores his hundred and Pakistan can declare.

But Pakistan do not work for any intents and purposes. Misbah’s Test strike-rate stood at 42, he is often referred to by his unflattering moniker of ‘Tuk Tuk’. There was no indication of what was to come, no way for those watching to expect what they were about to witness.

The captain took to the field in the 44th over, with five more overs to go before lunch. By lunch, Misbah had made 52 off 21 balls to record the fastest ever half-century in Test history. Lunch must definitely have tasted extra sweet.

After the break, some good bowling by the quicks and conservative field placements slowed him down but needing eight off two balls to equal Sir Vivian Richard’s record, Misbah hit two boundaries to make the joint-fastest Test century ever. The skipper scored at a strike-rate of just over than 178, more than four times faster than his career strike-rate; for perspective, it means that in this innings every four runs he scored came faster than every single run he scores on average: the captain led from the front in terms of madness.

The insanity of Pakistan, however, is a gift that keeps on giving and it is not only the batsmen who were guilty – or innocent in Pakistan’s case – of it.

Pakistan’s quartet of frontline bowlers contained two debutants and the four had played eight Tests between themselves going into the series, taking 22 wickets. Without the suspended Saeed Ajmal and with fitness issues over their country’s best four pacemen — Umar Gul, Junaid Khan, Muhammad Irfan and Wahab Riaz — this second-choice bowling attack had no right to trouble the Australian batting. But like the batsmen, they also failed to read the script, taking 35 wickets in the two Tests at an average of 24.66.

Perhaps that is why Michael Clarke resorted to such unorthodox field placements and bowling rotations when all else failed; maybe he too, wanted to delve into insanity.

But madness is a harsh mistress; we were here in 2012 too, when Pakistan whitewashed England, the then number one side in the world. Since then, they have won just three out of their last 15 Tests so it would be wise to proceed with caution.

However, when push comes to shove, there is only one team that can win through sheer madness, and that team now sits proudly on third in the Test rankings.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2014.

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.