For a longer while than it actually was, you could smell the bloodlust everywhere, wherever you were.
From the centre of Adelaide, from the centre of the cricket world, out of your TVs, inside the stadium, everywhere.
A World Cup quarter-final between Pakistan and Australia had effectively turned into a personal hunt for blood; Wahab Riaz wanted Shane Watson's, and he did everything but get it. For 10 deliveries this was not cricket as a team game, but cricket as one-on-one physical combat.
Stirred earlier in the piece by Mitchell Starc, Riaz was pumped. Already David Warner had gone and Michael Clarke reminded of his ageing back.
He bowled 10 balls to Watson, though they felt like far more than mere deliveries.
ODI rules limit bouncers to only two per over, but it is difficult to recall a single one of those 10 landing in Watson’s half of the pitch.
Forget his wicket. Most could have caused him serious harm, and here was a reminder of the physicality of this game (and cricket hardly needed reminding, given the death of Phil Hughes just a few months ago).
On the 11th ball Riaz bowled to Watson, however and most cruelly for Pakistanis, came the reminder that cricket is, alas, a team game.
Bowlers need their fielders to catch. As Watson hooked blind, Rahat Ali settled himself under a regulation chance at deep square leg. He had taken a far trickier chance.
At 83 for three, here was the moment of this little individual contest and the match. It went through his hands, as did the game out of Pakistan’s.
The spell was broken, the game was broken and Australia became Australia. Pakistan dropped Glenn Maxwell later on, but this was the moment.
Has the script ever been any different for Pakistan?
It is tempting and logical to look at any match through the performances of the victors.
But more than most teams, Pakistan compel you to look at any result purely through their eyes.
Their batting was always going to be the key to this game. The plan would have been straightforward. Bat first, ideally. Put on 250, maybe stretch it to 270, and then let your bowlers loose.
And at points it looked as if they might get near that target. Their middle order five, from Haris Sohail down to Shahid Afridi, all got in.
At various stages, each one looked as if he could set the innings up. Yet each fell between scores of 20 and 41, or rather each got himself out.
This was not especially inspired bowling. It was disciplined and fairly intense, but better batting sides would have taken advantage.
This was not scrambled batting, either, falling while going hell for leather, for instance, as a strategy. They all batted smartly for phases.
They negated the major threats of Mitchells Johnson and Starc but, in true Pakistan style, gave six wickets to Josh Hazlewood and Maxwell.
They failed to execute attacking shots of a kind they should always execute. They do not, though, nearly as often as they should and, collectively, it is their major failing.
And nobody wrenches open these faultlines better and more ruthlessly than Australia.
Hazlewood, especially, is the kind of Australian bowler designed purely to bowl to Pakistan day in, day out – healthy pace, tight off-stump lines and a little seam.
Australian resolve remains, but India in the semi-final will come bearing no such gifts. Their batsmen will cash in. Their fielders will not let their bowlers down.
Once they have come to terms with the departures of two vastly contrasting monuments that are Afridi and Misbah-ul-Haq – both in their last one-day international – Pakistan will rue failings as old as the country.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
MISBAH’S REGRET OF PLAYING ‘HIS INNINGS’ WITHOUT A HUNDRED
Misbah-ul-Haq said not scoring a century will remain a lifelong regret as the curtain fell on the Pakistan captain’s 162-match, one-day career following defeat in the World Cup quarter-finals yesterday.
Misbah fell for 34 in Pakistan’s below-par total of 213, which Australia chased down for the loss of four wickets with 16.1 overs to spare in Adelaide.
Misbah, who retired from one-dayers yesterday along with fellow veteran Shahid Afridi, said his failure to score a one-day hundred would have to remain a regret.
“It was my wish” to score a one-day hundred “but it didn’t come about,” said Misbah, who has the most runs in one-day cricket – 5,122 in 162 matches – without scoring a hundred.
“I put my whole effort into it, but that didn’t come and it will be a disappointment but I enjoyed my career and I am satisfied.”
Misbah’s highest one-day score was 96 against the West Indies at The Oval in the 2013 Champions Trophy.
“It was really an honour to represent my country,” said Misbah, who will continue to play Tests. “I enjoyed my cricket and gave everything to my country.”
Misbah, 40, said he would not reconsider his decision to quit one-day cricket. “I told the Pakistan Cricket Board [PCB] about my plans,” Misbah said.
“Until and unless you put responsibility onto youngsters, they will not improve and the time has come to do that. They need to take responsibility.
“I have played my innings. The PCB has a chance, these players have a chance to develop a team for the next World Cup and progress.”
* Agence France-Presse
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