Had Shaheen Afridi not taken Harry Brook’s catch???

13th November 2022, Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) or better known as the “‘G”, it had all boiled down to this moment. ICC T20 World Cup Final. Pakistan vs England.

Shaheen Afridi after taking Brook’s catch. In the process, he hurt is injured knee.

Pakistan were asked to bat first in the all-important final. Once again, Babar Azam lost the toss. With the cloud cover around and heavy predictions of the entire day being washed out because of rain, it seemed like a good toss to win for England. The pitch report suggested it’s going to be a good carry and no assistance at all for spinners and whatnot. But it turned out to be the total opposite. Pitch was two-paced, with oddball sticking into the surface, spinners getting plenty of assistance and the bounce was variable as well.

So Pakistan made 137 runs in their allotted overs with the loss of 8 wickets. We were approximately 10 to 15 runs short. 150 on this pitch would have been a winning total. Towards the end, for some unknown reasons, our batters went for the aerial shots. While they knew apparently that the dimensions of the ground are big and hitting a six is near to impossible. Like earlier on when Shan & Babar were batting, they were milking 7-8 runs per over by merely running hard between the wickets.

Nevertheless, if there was any team who could have defended that total, it was Pakistan. What India could not do in their entire 16 overs in the semi-final against England, it took Pakistan just 6 balls to get the 1st wicket. Afridi doing what he does best, getting a wicket in his first over. The start was brilliant, taking 1 wicket in the first over, 2 wickets in 3.2, and 3 wickets in 5.3 overs. The spell from Haris Rauf was absolutely phenomenal. He removed their two key batters Salt and Buttler with extreme pace and amazing length. Moreover, Naseem Shah bowled his heart out too (barring the initial 2 overs, where he was slightly overpitching). Out of his 24 deliveries, he beat the edge of the batsmen approx. 14 times. He remained wicketless but that spell was the most lethal wicketless bowling spell one could ever witness.

Then Shadab Khan stepped up & took the reigns. In my opinion, he should have bowled a touch slower in order to get the right amount of purchase of the wicket. But he was bowling quicker than his counterpart (Adil Rashid). Adil had bowled a wicket-maiden as well coz of his slower trajectory. Anyway, he was able to get a wicket in his last over, and that was off Harry Brook. Shaheen Afridi took the catch. BUT that catch seemed to be the turning point in the game. That wicket brought, Pain. Agony. Ache. Tears.

Afridi is in severe pain after taking the catch, knowing he has aggravated his injury.

As soon as Shaheen Shah Afridi dived to take that catch at long off, he landed on his right knee which triggered his knee injury once again (dating back to the field attempt against SL in a test series, it had kept him out of series against Netherlands, Asia Cup, home series against England and Tri-nation series in New Zealand). After that catch, he was down on the ground. Flattened. Distressed. Troubled. Upset.

At the start of the tournament, we all knew Afridi was not at his 100%, especially in his first 2 matches, against India and Zimbabwe. When 3 runs were required off the last ball while turning for the second run, he stopped, ran, hobbled, and then dived in the end to make the crease but fell short, and with that Pakistan was almost knocked out of the tournament.

Shaheen Afrid could clearly be seen who was distressed.

We all knew that he has messed up his knee once again. He was already playing this tournament with an injury but he was getting better with every passing game – until that catch. The physio was out but he could have done nothing. Nobody could have done anything. Every Pakistani in the stadium & watching the game on TV, couldn’t relish the next over-delivered by Naseem Shah ( who gave away just the 2 runs). Beating the bat multiple times, because we knew that Shaheen Afridi will eventually have to come on to bowl and he WON’T be able to bowl. When Babar gave him the ball to deliver the 15th over, the equation for England was to score 41 runs off 30 balls with unsettled Moeen Ali on the crease. Moeen has been dismissed by Afridi on more than one occasion earlier. However, when Shaheen ran in to bowl the first ball. He aborted. Nasser Hussain said: he doesn’t look good. Nonetheless – knowing that his knee was done – he ran in again – once again to test whether his knee could complement him but it did not. Still managed to deliver a dot ball. Limped on his follow-through. Hobbled. Smiled. But it wasn’t a smile. It was something else. It was pain. And knowing Shaheen, how passionate and committed he is, that was easily the LONGEST walk he had to take to go out of the field as it was evident that he did not want to but he had to. At the grandest stages of them all, he could not deliver yet again (last time being against Matthew Wade in SF of ICC T20 WC 2021). The pain Shaheen was in at that stage when he took that catch was unbelievable. His injury was aggravated. But his commitment to come in and deliver that one ball only to test his knee was one of the bravest and the most courageous acts one could witness on a cricket field.

When Shaheen left the field, the equation was England needing 41 off 29 balls. But with Shaheen leaving the field, there was a feeling of panic among the Pakistan supporters. The momentum was broken, Iftikhar was handed over the ball to complete the over. The First 2 balls were good enough, the next was hit toward the mid-off fielder but dropped short, Babar Azam did well to stop the awkward bounce and didn’t let it dribble to the boundary. 5th ball was dispatched along the ground for 4 and the 6th was hit over the fielder for a 6. That game was done and dusted in those 2 deliveries. England snatched the momentum and never looked back after that.

But it all happens. It’s part and parcel of the game. Being the crazy cricket-loving nation we are, we have no regrets. We’re proud of our team. From being mocked after the 1st two defeats and everyone writing us off, we stormed back to play the Final of the tournament, & nearly won it too. The good thing is we have a young team and these lads will stick together In Sha Allah and make it happen in the future. We’re only going to get better than this. A prime example is Ben Stokes himself, he was tonked for 4 sixes by Carlos Brathwaite in the final over and could not defend 24 runs in 2016. But he came back winning the Headingley test when his team was 9 down. He won the 50-over World Cup for his country and now this T20 WC in 2022.

Shaheen Afridi you’re the true “Shaheen”, be strong and come back even stronger, In Sha Allah. May Allah give you a speedy recovery & may you shine even more. Aameen!