Semi Final of the World Cup 1999

The stage was set. The match was a semi final of the cricket world cup 1999. The opposing team had put on the board a total that seemed imposing to the naked eye. The horrors of the 1987 semi final in Lahore suggested that an inexperienced Pakistani player would be so full of nerves that it will affect his batting. His start was shaky. His shots were all defensive. It seemed as if he would put the pressure on his senior partner and get him out. We forgot one thing. Wajahatullah Wasti is a Pathan and Pathans do not let their teammates down. Wasti unleashed a flurry of drives off the best bowler of the tournament to give the team and his partner the needed confidence to blast the opposition into oblivion. Today, another batting star was born for Pakistan. His light was almost as bright as the young bowling star that has blinded fans all over the world. Merge that with the authority and mastery of the great Saeed Anwar and total dominance is the result. Today, when Shoaib Akhter's fantastic yorker crashed into the New Zealand captain's leg stump, a nation joined him in that heart warming yell that urged the team on to victory.

New Zealand won the toss on a good day at Old Trafford, Manchester. Stephen Fleming elected to bat. Considering Pakistan's track record and the fact that the wicket looked like a great batting track, this was the right decision. It was a good toss to win. Pakistan went with an unchanged side from the last game, as did New Zealand. Pakistan had a lot of support at this venue much like they did for their loss against India. Wasim Akram and Shoaib started proceedings for Pakistan. Akram was accurate after the first wayward over while Shoaib attacked like always. A no ball bouncer went over the head of Moin for four and New Zealand looked like they would survive the first burst from Pakistan. Nathan Astle has had a horror tournament and it continued. Shoaib cleaned up his leg stump with a vicious delivery that ripped through him. McMillan came in and survived three run out chances. In every case, a direct hit would have had him but Ijaz, Saeed and Razzaq missed and it seemed it was not Pakistan's day. Akram beat McMillan time and again before he got him playing outside off without moving his feat and Moin took a simple catch. Horne at one end had been playing great all this time. He timed the ball well and hit well especially through the covers. He was picking up boundaries as well as singles and carried the Kiwi score. Akram changed Shoaib after his usual four wicket spurt and Razzaq was brought on. Razzaq produced a beauty of a yorker that went through Horne in a flash to knock out his middle stump. New Zealand was 58 for 3 and Horne had left for 35.

Twose had been the in form Kiwi and had produced match winning knocks against Australia and India. Both him and the Kiwi captain Fleming steadied the ship. They picked their singles and twos (excuse the pun). The odd boundary was coming too and one particular on drive through mid wicket by Fleming was a treat to watch. Akram brought on Saqlain early and also tried Azhar. Saqlain looked off color and did not impress today although both the batsmen were left handers. Azhar bowled well, swung the ball back into the left handers but lost control once in a while to stray down leg. This partnership was getting out of hand and Akram had tried everything. He had to bring back his trump card and he did. The ball by this time was not coming onto the bat and stroke making was difficult or so it looked. Shoaib is so quick that his ball was coming onto the bat and runs started to flow. A Shoaib delivery was played to third man where Inzmam misfielded and the ball crossed the ropes. The very next ball went through Saqlain's legs at mid on and two more runs resulted. Tony Gregg at that time made one of his many annoying biased remarks. He said that he wondered if this was the time Pakistan would come undone in the field. The next ball changed the game. Shoaib was visibly exacerbated after the two misfields. He steamed in from around the stumps to the Kiwi skipper. The ball he delivered with tremendous pace at 92 mph started outside Fleming's off and homed into his leg stump. The ball was a perfect yorker and all Fleming could do was save his toes. The stumps tumbled. Shoaib ran past Moin and let out a great big yell with his hands clinched. He shouted to his team mates some obscenities and easily readable "Come On!!". The partnership was broken after a very good 94 runs. Cairns walked into a tailor made situation for him at 152/4. Normally he loses his head in a situation like this but he walked in and stayed calm. Whenever given the chance he did launch one. He hit Azhar over his head and both Shoaib and Akram over cover for superb boundaries. Roger Twose who had been playing superbly at the other end was all set for his half century as he square drove Razzaq from the meat of this bat. The ball was travelling at a hundred miles an hour towards backward point. Ijaz dove to his right (he is a lefty) and pulled off an absolute blinder. It was the best catch of the tournament. Pakistan was back in it at 176/5. Chris Harris gave some good support to Cairns before Shoaib cleaned him up with a great slower one. Akram removed Parore's off bail with good slower one and Cairns managed to take New Zealand to 241/7 off 50 overs. Pakistan had given away 47 extras and 5 extra overs. The Kiwis had achieved a good total on a wicket that looked like it would be tough to bat on in the second innings.

Pakistan started their innings cautiously with Saeed Anwar doing most of the scoring. He has looked in superb touch of late and the determined look on his face suggested that he wanted to stick around. Allott had been the best bowler of the tournament with 20 wickets to his name. He was putting good pressure on the two openers but Nash was ordinary at the other end. He gave the two openers too much width and extras. Wasti was the one suspect name in the top line up as one did not know how he would react to pressure. He was very defensive. After seeing off the first few overs he opened his arms a bit. The drives that followed were an absolute pleasure to watch. Allott pitched outside off and he leant into one with consummate ease. He followed that with the perfect cover drive. Nash pitched one up on the on side and he flicked it for four more. By now Pakistan were off to a flier with the fifty coming up in the tenth over. The dangerous Allott had been seen off. The rest of the New Zealand bowling was pedestrian and these two started milking them. Cairns came in to bowl and brief spell where he got the run rate to slow down but long hops from Harris and Larsen at regular intervals would get smashed. Fleming tried everything but the two Pakistani openers were possessed. Whenver Wasti would lose his composure Saeed would come down to urge him on and ask him to focus. Wasti blossomed in the presence of the master. Both reached their fifties and Pakistan went over a hundred in the 23rd over. But this opening partnership was not about to end and the two soldiered on. It was total domination. Wasti played exquisitely. He hoisted one from Harris into the crowd. His on drives are a treat to watch. He opened the face of his bat time and again to get singles to the third man area. The running between the wickets was great too and there were no hiccups. After Pakistan crossed 150 Wasti became increasingly edgy. The run rate required was just over 5 but he wanted to end it early. Finally, with the game well and truly over, Wasti lost his wicket and skied Cairns to mid off. He had made 84 runs and earned respect. His fabulous innings ended but the Saeed carried on. Ijaz came in and knocked a few around. Pakistan got the runs with 9 wickets and 2 and ½ overs to spare as the crowd just pored into the ground. Saeed was unbeaten on 115. It was a great knock and Pakistan totally dominated the game.

Shoaib Akhter was given the man of the match though I thought Saeed Anwar was the logical choice but then Richie Benaud is old and quirky. Maybe he thought that the yell he let out after bowling Fleming was the motivating factor that changed the game. Maybe it was. Pakistan trounced the Kiwis in this semifinal and now wait for the winners of the other semi final game. Pakistan are sitting pretty right now with the team having chased a big enough total to have confidence in their batting. The wickets in England are drying up so winning the toss might not be that important though I am personally still comfortable with Pakistan defending a total. Saqlain looked off color today so hopefully he will be up for the final. The Pakistan team has reached the final again after 1992. Their opponent will be decided tomorrow but boy wouldn't it be a blast if it is South Africa.