By Mayank Chhaya-
Watching a World Cup cricket match in highlights is like watching a whole movie in a trailer. All the spoilers are neatly packed in about three minutes with everything of value disclosed at regular intervals.
It is a heretic’s pursuit to watch a World Cup cricket match in highlights and it is downright blasphemous to watch a game between India and Pakistan thus. I did and you can do whatever you want.
As an avid cricketer in my much younger days and someone who, in fact, played a friendly match against Pakistan in Lahore 30 years ago, it was an interesting experience to watch this game on the World Cup’s official website. That the match was played in my hometown of Ahmedabad added that extra joy in those three minutes.
The match’s statistics are well known. India won by seven wickets scoring the requisite 192 in just 30.3 overs losing three wickets as opposed to Pakistan’s 191 all out in 42.5 overs. What was astounding was that at one point Pakistan was 155 for 2 and seemed to be headed for a decent score when there was sudden and inexplicable collapse. They lost eight wickets for a paltry 36 runs. It was almost as if the Pakistanis suddenly told themselves, “Screw it. Let’s just give in.” Even in the highlights it was a strange thing to watch.
As scores go, any score can be daunting for any team on any day. By that logic even 191 was something India could have lost to but that was clearly not an option for the home team in the city of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Narendra Modi Stadium where the match was played. Imagine, if you can, India losing to Pakistan in Ahmedabad at the Narendra Modi Stadium!
Cricketing god Sachin Tendulkar ceremoniously carried the World Cup trophy even as the spectators chanted his first name as if invoking some otherworldly power.
India’s captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bowl. Pakistan’s opening pair Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq got their team off to a brisk start scoring 41 runs in the first eight overs. They were followed by Pakistan skipper Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan produced a partnership of 82 runs planting their country firmly at 155 for 2. That is when the collapse began.
I am not getting into specifics because those are all available online. My interest is to reflect what it feels like watching an India-Pakistan match in just about three minutes. It erases dull moments, for one. With the result known one can focus on the quality of the play, all three, batting, bowling and fielding. You feel as if the whole match ought to have been as rapid as the highlights. One gets to see the best shots, best catches, best stops and so on. Perhaps three minutes is too short. One can do with ten-minute-long highlights. One must applaud the editor who puts the highlights together. It is not an easy job.
The instant gratification aspect of the highlights also works for me apart from being able to watch it any number of times from any point. There was a time when I was a cricket aficionado given to enjoying the subtleties and uncertainties of the game. That is no longer the case having played it enough and watched it enough.
Watching India’s captain Rohit Sharma cavalierly punishing the Pakistani bowlers was quite satisfying. Along the way Sharma his 300th six. I come from an era when batsmen (yes, they were called batsmen then unlike batters now) sparingly hit sixes with the possible exception of the late Salim Durrani. Sharma scored 86 in 63 balls. That was the signature knock that won India the match.
Even in the three-minute-long highlights I was struck by the fact that every time a Pakistani batter hit a boundary or a six, there was next to no cheering. Applauding any good play by Pakistan is infra dig in India at best and downright treasonous at worst in the current political climate, especially in a place like Ahmedabad. Given the relentless tensions between the two countries and, mercifully, the absence of an actual war, cricket becomes a stand-in for rivalry and combat. Whoever applauded a rival in combat?
