Shahid Afridi signed off his ODI career with a 15-ball autobiography of an innings – one last display of the average made extraordinary
Andy Zaltzman in Adelaide20-Mar-2015Shahid Afridi the ODI cricketer has quit the stage. The glorious, frustrating, charismatic, powerful, vulnerable, record-breaker, underachiever, champion and serial failer passed into 50-over history with an innings that summarised his batting career with an almost eerie perfection.His final performance as an ODI batsmen – all Afridi innings are performances – was the essence of Afridi in 15 captivating, brilliant, infuriating balls. Pakistan were 124 for 5, after Umar Akmal became the latest in a long and inglorious procession of batsmen to spew away a promising start with a shot of indiscernible thoughtfulness. Afridi’s last seven innings against Australia, since January 2010, had been 1, 2, 0, 7, 5, 2 and 6. His country needed something better on this big occasion. Afridi duly delivered something better. Not better by a significant margin, and not better enough to make a difference, but better, nonetheless.This 15-ball autobiography of an innings had everything you could want from an Afridinnings. Unless you were a Pakistan fan wanting him to make a decisive mark on the match. He paddled his first ball for two off middle stump. Had he missed, he would have been out first ball doing something reckless at a critical moment, the Afridi trademark Risk:Reward computer functioning in its distinctively Afridian way one last time. His second ball he sliced vigorously over backward point for four; to his fifth he skipped out and pelted a majestic drive over the bowler’s head for another boundary.ESPNcricinfo LtdHis eighth ball was his penultimate act of major Afridism, a physics-defying whirlwind of a drive that catapulted an 89-mile-an-hour good-length ball outside off stump into a six over cover. He then played and missed. And played and missed. And played and missed again. Then top-edged a violent attempted swipe over the keeper for four. Amidst the thunderous hammering and the failed swishes, he unveiled a delicate late cut for a single: 23 off 14 balls. The beginnings of a game-changing innings. But then, the final act of major Afridism. Having seen Misbah and Umar piddle away the beginnings of game-changing innings by planking the ball to Aaron Finch at deep midwicket, Afridi – who, after 398 ODIs, must have had an inkling that it might not be a good idea to follow suit – fastened Afridi-like on to a shortish ball from Hazlewood and planked it straight to Aaron Finch at deep midwicket.And that was that. Pakistan’s No. 7 had scored 23, exactly matching both his overall career average in ODIs and his average as a No. 7. The average of all No. 7 batsmen from Test nations collectively during the span of his career is also 23. It was an entirely average innings. He had been majestic, silly, brilliant and flawed in 20 minutes. Shahid Afridi – the average made extraordinary. One-day cricket will miss one of its most captivating players. He has enriched the format, entertained the masses, and been unmissably Afridian for almost two decades.● Afridi famously began his ODI batting career with a record – that 37-ball century against Sri Lanka as an alleged 16-year old. He ended by equalling another record, also remarkable – this was his fifth score in the 20s in this World Cup, in just six innings, equalling the record number of 20s in a World Cup (set by Chamara Silva in 2007, although the Sri Lankan needed ten innings to achieve this not-very-glorious feat).● Overheard in an Adelaide antique shop this morning:Misbah-ul-Haq: “So, genie, how many wishes can I make?”
Genie: “Captain, you can make one wish.”
Misbah: “Okay. In that case, genie, I wish that two Pakistan batsmen score their highest ODI scores in today’s quarter-final…”
Genie: “Captain, your wish is granted.”
Misbah: “But not Ehsan Adil and Rahat Ali.”
Genie: “One wish.”
Misbah: “Oooops.”● This was by far the most intriguing of the quarter-finals so far, albeit that victory was eventually comfortable for Australia, who rode their good fortune impressively during that gripping, gladiatorial hour when Wahab Riaz was bowling like a vengeful left-arm Zeus, the Adelaide crowd was barking its approval, and Steven Smith was batting with calm, magic-handed perfection amidst the maelstrom that seemed to be enveloping his team-mates. If Wahab’s bowling was the most memorable aspect of the game (and one of the major highlights of the entire tournament, as well as unquestionably the finest 2 for 54 off 9 overs I have ever seen), Smith’s innings was the most influential individual performance in deciding the outcome.● A curious statistic. I have seen Pakistan three times in this tournament – against India, West Indies and Australia. I am yet to see them (a) win, (b) bat out 50 overs, or (c) lose a wicket in any other way than caught. In the 10 previous World Cups combined, only two teams had been bowled out exclusively by catches, so to speak (New Zealand v West Indies in 1999, and Pakistan v Ireland in 2007). Pakistan have suffered this fate three times in their seven games in 2015 – the three games that they have lost. All of which suggests: (a) that the 2015 Pakistan team tends to hit the ball in the air towards fielders more often than would be ideal; (b) that if Ahmed Shehzad had deliberately smashed his stumps down when facing the first ball of the match, Pakistan would definitely have won; (c) Pakistan have not been watching and learning from their opponents’ fielding.(Scotland also lost all ten to catches against England in Christchurch, meaning that, in the nine matches I have attended at this World Cup, I have seen twice as many teams lose all ten to catches as a hypothetical omnipresent cricket fan would have seen after attending every single one of the other 387 games in World Cup history.)
