The Pathans of Baroda

Last day, I spent my evening watching Ind vs SL ,T20 - the latest revelation in the world of cricket - even though the watching was a continuous-streaming-links search effort - a bit ilking in the end as every 2 or 3 overs the streams were going off-air - and not a peaceful march, sitting on couch and watching the match on the feel-good big LCD screen(common-room in college days and the other TV-room in my previous company). Yeah, I am not always-lucky and notwithstanding the leisure time available, there are no TV-rooms in my new job. Also, adding to the misery are no Neo-Sports and DD1 too at home as Dish TV doesn't catch them here in Dubai. Alas! streaming is truly the only last resort. However, I am still happy watching the live action and not the recorded youtube, rediff videos only later , let alone the live text comentatory at Cricinfo.

Well, to speak of the match, it was a magnificent piece of cricket. Something worth remembering since the next T20 against NZ on 25 Feb ( Who knows that could be another great match to remember! ). As much as thrilling was the see-saw nature of the indian chase till the fall of the seventh wicket, it was only riveting after that. With the arrival of the the Big Pathan(the elder one - Yousuf ), the tide just took a U-turn. Reminiscing the legend Shane Warne who captained Yousuf in IPL- collars standing straght as the man himself, chewing gum to tease the bowler and confidence aplenty - Yousuf just took the most deadly spinner of the time - Bhandara who had already taken three crucial wickets by then - for two huge SIX and a FOUR that flew like a rocket to the stands and finally for 17 runs. The equation was tense 57 off 30 balls prior to the serene entry of Yousuf Pathan. After 4 balls, it was a plausible 40 off 24 balls. That Yousuf's heroic was enough to send the whole Sri Lanka to panic, though, irnoically, the standing captain, Dilshan had been in panic since India hit first FOUR ( I think, since first indian innings' boundary, the pressure was visible all over in his body language and facial expression , except for some glimpses of smile at the fall of each India wicket, making the team also in more pressure than the actual). Well, after that big 17-run over, the rest is history. The two brothers walked over the next overs in a style and this time , it was the other pathan brother - Irfan. As Yousuf also accepted afterwards that Irfan plays seam well so he took singles to give the strike to younger brother and Irfan just slogged the seamers for some wonderful SIXs and FOURs. Utterly majestic was the final blow to win the game - Irfan's best SIX of the innings, according to me, lofted off Malinga's supposedly tried yorker. Pathan brothers just brought back India to the game and also won the game for India. Indeed, that was a perfect day out for Pathan brothers in the middle of the field.

On a personal front, I feel quite high for Yousuf Pathan who has a great talent to clear boundaries with aerial routes. I have been shouting for Yousuf Pathan's inclusion(of course to my cricket-loving friends circle :) ) whenever he was dropped. And I do feel that Yousuf can be our equivalent of Austrailia's Symonds of 2005-2008 - Symond's best period as an allrounder. Clearly, I would like to watch this making of India's Symonds - Yousuf Pathan.