Fast bowling is not about sleek hair styles

[razzler]

LONDON: A tour of Australia is proverbially the toughest of all tours for a variety of reasons, not all of them cricketing, and Pakistan’s progress to the finals of the VB series, given the lack of experience in the side, is creditable. One could even say that it is perhaps as much as could be reasonably expected from this young side, but if Inzamam and Youhana can maintain the sort of purple patch they have hit at the moment, the sky could be the limit.

There is, of course, something reassuring on the one hand about this old firm of Inzamam and Youhana and something that is worrying on the other. The oldest truism in Pakistani cricketing journalism is that they are both batsmen of genuine class and what follows from that is the fact that we have come to take their performances as something we have a right to expect — and something we have a right to complain about if they do not deliver. On Sunday at Perth against the West Indies, both were at their magnificent best, with Youhana outshining the skipper if only because he is the fitter of the two.

Yet, the old firm cannot be expected to keep delivering ad infinitum and the worrying part is that the younger guns do not seem to be even nearly ready to take their mantle. They have played the odd excellent innings here and there, but it is not the odd good innings here and there that makes world class batsmen. The element of consistency that is the hallmark of the best, has been lacking. Salman Butt,Yasir Hameed and Shoaib Malik all have yet to qualify on the basis of this ultimate yardstick.

This means that the insurance against the failure of Inzamam and Youhana falls on the all-rounders, Razzaq and Afridi, who have done a marvellous job so far, but it is a job they can only be expected to do if they have a reasonable launching pad for their efforts. They can be expected to fire the side out of a situation in which say the first five or six wickets have gone down for a hundred odd, a scenario always likely with the top order’s contribution being so limited.

Irrespective of the outcome of the VB series final, two people have come out of this tour with flying colours and one hopes, become permanent features of this side. The first is Kamran Akmal whose glove work has been exemplary and who, notwithstanding his century against the West Indies in the first encounter, has not been able to give as good an account of himself as a batsman as he may have done because he has had to carry the somewhat unfair burden of opening the innings in conditions of which his experience must be limited — even allowing for the length of time this side has spent Down Under. The selectors deserve all the credit for their faith in him and that needs to be said; we get after them when they get things wrong and by the same token, they deserve praise when they get it so visibly right, as in the case of Akmal they have. The media pressure on them to reconsider their decision regarding Akmal was great, albeit for reasons that had nothing to do with cricket, but they withstood this pressure and young Akmal has done them proud.

But the real unsung hero of this Australian tour has been Rana Naved-ul-Hasan. With both Shoaib and Sami leaving the arena through injuries, somebody had to hold up their hand and take the responsibility and this young man stepped forward to answer his country’s call. He commitment and dedication have brought a breath of fresh air into this Pakistan side; his performance against the West Indies at Perth drew the most generous of compliments in this regard from people like Ian Chappell and Mark Taylor, who, better than anyone, recognise and appreciate that most Australian of all virtues of coming back again and again and never giving up. Rana went off after six excellent opening overs with a knee strain but came back on to the field quickly, gave 110 per cent in the field in spite of his injury, and then came back to bowl at the death with unerring accuracy to ensure Pakistan’s victory.

Rana Naved is nobody’s pin up but he does not have to be. He has shown that good fast bowling is about much more than long run ups, duels with the speed camera or sleek hair styles — indeed, if it was about sleek hair styles, he wouldn’t have a hope in hell, for there isn’t much on top out there to style! It is about accuracy, bowling to one’s field and controlled movement both in the air and off the seam — and above all, it is about giving everything you have every time you come in to bowl. It is about discipline and commitment and guts and team spirit. No one has done more than him to lift the performance of this Pakistan side and one only hopes that with the return of some bigger names to the fold, he will not be excluded from future Pakistani line-ups. If I had anything to do with the naming of Pakistani cricketing squads, the first bowling name on my list would be his. He is somebody you can count on and there is no greater virtue a bowler can bring to this Pakistan side.

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Last three para are absolutely brilliant and dead right spot on. :-)

[Officer Barbrady]

Good read. I would mention though that the credit for Kamran Akmal goes at least in part to the captain and coach who called him up in place of the supposedly raw Zulkernain that the selectors had selected (against Sri Lanka).

[MIG]

Good read - excellent post Razzler !

[razzler]

Thanks MIG but this is taken from Jang.

[Officer Barbrady]

Quote ... unquote

"Rana Naved is nobody's pin up but he does not have to be. He has shown that good fast bowling is about much more than long run ups, duels with the speed camera or sleek hair styles..."
Shahed Sadullah, a columnist for The News, has a thinly veiled pop at a certain fast bowler who fancies himself as an aeroplane.

From Cricinfo



|-Y

[MIG]

Ya mean ya didnt write it ? |-S |-S

What I meant was , thanks for the effort to research and post it for us.

[zulfiqar]

Rana is undoubtedly the hero for Pak in VB series. I also said in the poll of who's pak's most important player; and it's Rana guys . THREE times more important than AFridi. The day we rely on Afridi for big hitting is a day we need to be bailed out of trouble. For us, Rana is the man that needs to fire or else we will get smacked all around in Melbourne

[Officer Barbrady]

MIG ! :oD