Misbahul Haq: Shine on, you not-so-crazy diamond

KARACHI: Pakistan’s cricketing heroes are mercurial; they shine too bright and burn out too quickly. For that we worship them in their prime and discard them in their twilight. Misbahul Haq is not of that ilk; hence he shall never be one of Pakistan’s cricketing heroes.

They called him Mr Consistent back in the day, and that has been his curse. The nation waits to embrace him as one of their own; for him to break loose and go berserk, to play in a manner that enchants and infuriates in equal measure. Instead, he plays sensibly and consistently, never dealing in absolutes. And the nation continues to wait.

Misbah made his debut in 2002 but it wasn’t until five years later that he managed to establish himself in the side; by then he was on the wrong side of 30 and few thought he would last very long, and even fewer bothered to form an opinion about him.

That changed  soon; the 2011 World Cup was to define Misbah’s time in the green kit of Pakistan. He was the star of the show with the bat against Sri Lanka in Pakistan’s narrow 11-run win in the group stages, scoring an unbeaten 83 off 91 balls.

But Pakistan does not remember that, no one remembers that. What they do remember, what they will always remember, is what went down in Mohali. Chasing 261 against hosts India, Pakistan were firmly in the front seat to win their first ever World Cup match against their arch-rivals.

When Misbah came out to bat, the visitors had just lost two wickets for three runs and he rightfully decided to consolidate. But he never got going and by the time he did, it was too late. Pakistan fell 29 runs short and Misbah was blamed for the loss.

Perhaps the nation would have forgiven and forgotten by now had the then 36-year-old not decided to do the unthinkable: keep on playing. But he did not only do that, he got better. Before 2011, Misbah’s average was 37.9, since then it is 45.81. That improvement, and every impressive innings that he has played ever since that fateful night in Mohali, has been a painful reminder to the nation of what might have been.

Misbah has hit 49 sixes since 2011; only Shahid Afridi has hit more for Pakistan, of course he has. But every six off Misbah’s bat is cheered by the nation with the painful burden of Mohali heavy on their shoulders. The more they saw Misbah excel, the more they wondered why he couldn’t have done it when it mattered the most. The more reason he gave them to love him, the more they hated him.

And so Misbah, captain and Pakistan’s best ODI batsman by far in the past four years, became the ultimate leper messiah. They hated him because he could not score a century, they hated him because his strike-rate was too slow, they hated him because he never finished a match; but most of all, they hated him because he time and again did what he could not that night in Mohali.

Misbah has never scored a century, but he has scored 37 half centuries. His best five scores are all not-outs, so had the innings not ended, he would have in all likelihood scored a century; but this is a hazard of coming in at number five. In fact, he has made 70 or more on 16 occasions, and has finished not out on 12 of them.

His strike-rate of 73.63 is on the slower side but that is because he has seen one too many batting order collapses and has been forced to consolidate and glue the innings together. A slow starter, Misbah often makes up for it after being forced to play inside his shell early on. Of the 16 times he has made 70 or more, he has finished with a strike-rate of 85 or above on 11 occasions.

Contrary to popular belief, the 40-year-old is one of the best finishers the country has had. Off the 18 times that he has scored a fifty in the second innings, Pakistan have won 12 and lost just six. There have been lower-order collapses in all six defeats, with the last five batsmen making 12, 22, 31, 33, 35 and 41 between themselves. He has never been on the losing side while being on the crease on a half-century at the end of a match.

Misbah has always performed in global events. His average in the World Cup is 49.6 and 53.4 in the Champions Trophy.

He has the third highest ODI average in the country’s history after Zaheer Abbas and Fawad Alam, and the highest of any Pakistani batsman with more than 3,000 runs. Better than Inzamamul Haq, better than Muhammad Yousuf, better than even Javed Miandad; but he will never be spoken of in the same breath as those greats.

It is then perhaps fitting that Misbah’s swansong will come at the tournament that condemned him; one final chance of redemption, one final shot at the unending adulation that others around him seem to command so easily.

An aging man from Mianwali will now lead Pakistan Down Under in his last World Cup; we have been here before. Maybe, just maybe, Misbah’s story is not yet finished.

 

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