Pak wins 20 20 World Cup

I kind of lost touch with the fact that today was the 20 20 final between Sri lanka and Pak, maybe it had something to do with the 6 hour delay while sitting on a runway in shanghai last night, or how I was ruing the cold truth that I only had a day in Thailand, in its infinite lush greenness. However when people started shrieking and my porter ran off to the tv  leaving my trolley and me in the lurch at Karachi airport I suddenly woke up from my stupor.

Screams of joy rattled around the baggage claim and clapping, “Dilshan has gone” was the chatter and I smiled to myself thinking “what more proof does the world need of this cricket mad nation to let it host the WC. “Eventually after an hour at the baggage claim sifting through the bags as the porters kept jumping up and down with the fall of each lankan batsmen I  hurriedly made my way out and then home to switch on the tv and witness history in making.

By this time many people on twitter and facebook were alive and kept updating their status to reflect their ever changing emotional state, ideas, strategy or just gaalis out of stress. However taking one look at the  live crowd it was quite clear that no Pak fan in the ground had their fingernails intact either , such was the atmosphere as we have not won anything for 17 years. Not till the reign of another khan and another era in our cricket.

Credit thoug should be given to Srilanka who after a disastrous start by the bowling of one Mr Razzaq(thank you Icl) fought back in true south asian style and ended their innings with 138 on the board, a miraculous position as at one point they were tottering for 4 and then 5 down in their 40’s.

Obviously with any other team the celebrations would have begun @ about 50 odd reached without a wicket falling but in our case we hadto wait. Its because Pakistan can implode at any moment, and sometimes it feels like it should but god knows why & how it just manages to hang on by a thread or a whisker.

Having begun well with Akmal and shahzad Pakistan did lose a bit of steam when Afridi came into bat but he is still in sublime form and he just throttled the bowling of stars like Mendis and Muruli around, stroking boundaries and sixes to all parts of the ground till we won the cup. Yes the same Mendis who was unreadable up to now. The point with Afridi is that he has no point, he could care less if queen rania was bowling to him, his response is always to hit it out of the park and he has now done so for two matches running. He was well supported by Malik as well at the other end but then there was plenty of batting to come.

I felt Afridi was the difference between the two sides and he seems to be blossoming under the new leadership of Younis khan who I might add is a bit mental as when asked the question “What do you think of your match winners” he retorted with “They just happened and I was also surprised by it” strategy, o winning captain??? Don’t just say it was all luck??? By now he has also announced his retirement from 20 20 after this win, doubtless this is not a knee jerk reaction either??

Still this is not the moment to castrate our captain or ro say anything else than congratulations Pakistan, we are now 20 20 world cup winners and as the  aerial firing intensifies in happiness and crackers go off with people dancing to the beat of the dhol in our streets here in Karachi it is safe to assume that this great victory might just provide us the impetus as a nation to get our shit together. If it does not, hey we have still earned the right to let our hair down tonight and party for we as a country are now united in great joy.

Well done Team Pakistan, are you watching Bob? This is your team!!

P.S I suggest that video footage of this match be sent to team Newzeland immediately so they can see how real men play.

P.P.S Since Khan has retired and India’s public wants him out as captain… can we have him?

P.P.P.S  We were down when the Lankan team was attacked but never out, the world underestimated us and now we have shown everyone our mettle. We are the champions!