Published: Sep 18, 2016, 06:12 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 19, 2016, 10:26 AM (IST)
Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq is surely among the iconic players from the nation. Be it any format, Misbah was smart enough to adapt as per the situations. Many people have a misconception about Misbah and think that he started playing international cricket in 2007 after becoming famous in ICC World T20 2007. But the fact is that he made his Test debut way back in 2001 but due to inconsistency, he remained out of the side till 2007. Before 2007, anyone hardly knew about Misbah the tournament made him famous and he hogged all the headlines for his expensive improvisation in the T20 final against arch-rivals India, which probably cost them the title.
While chasing 158, Misbah was last hope for Pakistan alive at the crease, he batted till the end and a victory looked on the cards but something else was destined to happen.
Misbah recently spoke about that moment, especially about that shot in the famous show in Pakistan — ‘The Sportsman’. The show is hosted by former Pakistan pacer Wasim Akram, to whom Misbah explained the scenario by saying, “I think it is that kind of shot which I used to play mostly during my tape ball days. That used to be my pet shot. The moment I knew that there is nothing I can do, I used to go for that shot and never missed. During the World T20, I don’t know how many boundaries I scored with that execution and before that as well.”
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Misbah continued talking about that famous game and said, “It was like, whenever I was in such situation of last wicket with five runs needed, I always thought of going to level the score with a boundary first. So, Dhoni was standing very close to me and my plan was to hit that ball above the keeper. There was not much pace and I knew that. I knew that If I go for a straight shot then there was a chance of miss hit and most of the fielders were up with extra cover as well because Joginder Sharma didn’t have much pace and I anticipated him to bowl a bit fuller length. Sometimes your execution can go wrong and at times your strength becomes your weakness. You know that when you play such ramp shot, one has to pick the delivery as early so that it goes far. I did totally opposite of that as I played that very close to the body and the ball went up in the air. There was enough amount of time for a fielder to get under it and grab the catch.”
Talking about the disappointment over that shot, Misbah added, “Yes there was regret but I think very soon I wiped it from my mind by thinking that it’s a past now and in order to move forward, I have to stop thinking about it.”
Well, this was the story behind that scoop shot by Misbah and how the Pakistani cricketer moved ahead. Further, Misbah became a crucial part in the team across formats and never looked back.
