MATCH STORIES
Follow UsIf ‘bowling great spells for negligible returns’ was a job, then Naseem Shah would be right up there as one of the richest people in this world.
For the longest time, the story of Naseem Shah’s T20I career has been this: great spells, multiple unplayable deliveries, yet not enough wickets in the final column to show for the same.
From the start of the 2022 T20 World Cup till the end of the clash against USA in Dallas on June 6th (Thursday), Naseem had bowled 16 times in T20Is. Yet these 16 innings had yielded him a total of just 9 wickets, despite the 21-year-old bowling far better than his actual returns.
The spell in the final of the 2022 T20 World Cup against England, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, sort of epitomized the youngster’s T20I career.
There, the right-armer bowled arguably the best spell of the entire tournament, inducing a staggering 70.80% false shots in his 4-over spell, making it the most threatening spell in that particular T20WC edition. Yet flabbergastingly, Naseem exited the said contest empty handed, with the English batters somehow surviving his onslaught.
The run of rotten luck, which began in the 2022 T20WC, extended all the way till the USA clash earlier this week: by the end of that contest, Naseem had gone 16 consecutive games without picking more than one wicket.
In sport, though, if you keep doing the right things long enough, things will eventually start going your way.
Naseem found that out at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on June 9 (Sunday) as the 21-year-old finally got the luck and the wickets he’s deserved for some time now.
After going 16 consecutive innings without a single 2+ wicket haul, Naseem, against India, registered his career-best figures, picking a three-wicket haul for the first time in T20Is.
And the youngster couldn’t have picked a better time to achieve this feat, considering it came in Pakistan’s biggest game of the year against their fiercest rivals on the grandest stage of all.
On the day, India got bowled out for their second-lowest score while batting first in T20 World Cups, with a cataclysmic collapse ensuring that the side folded for 119 all-out after being 89/3 at one point.
And it was Naseem who set the tone with the ball for Pakistan, taking the massive wicket of Virat Kohli in his very first over.
Prior to this clash, Pakistan spent 12 whole years not having a clue as to how to nullify the threat of Kohli in big matches in this particular format. Before this contest, Kohli was averaging 308 versus the Men in Green in T20 World Cups. His scores were 78*, 36*, 55*, 57 & 82* and it was he who single-handedly dragged the Men in Blue in this particular fixture in the previous T20 World Cup two years ago.
But it took Naseem only three balls to help the Men in Green get a huge monkey off their back as he had India’s talisman caught at point.
In truth, the ball that got Kohli was far from a good one. If we’re being honest, it probably wasn’t among the 21-year-old’s Top 100 balls in the last year. It was a borderline ‘hit-me’ delivery that the right-hander miscued straight to the fielder.
But that Naseem, who’s struggled for two years to get wickets off good balls, managed to get the massive scalp of Kohli via a bad ball signaled a turn in fortunes for the 21-year-old.
For reasons only Pakistan and Babar Azam know, Naseem was immediately withdrawn from the attack and was not brought in until the 8th over. In hindsight, it did not prove to be the shrewdest of moves as India, during the aforementioned five-over period, ended up scoring 38 runs in five overs on a tricky surface.
But reintroduced into the attack in the 8th over again, Naseem once again struck inside four balls by castling Axar Patel. It was a massive wicket in the context of the game. Promoted to No.4, Axar had built a 39-run stand with Rishabh Pant. The partnership had put India in a position of control after a disappointing start. Naseem, however, brutalised the stumps of the left-handed Axar to give a much-needed opening for the Men in Green.
Unlike the Kohli one, though, this was a delivery worthy of a wicket: fast, skiddy and on target. The batter missed; Naseem hit.
The bizarre pattern continued as, after the dismissal, Babar removed Naseem from the attack, only to bring him back in the 14th over.
And as if the game was an endless loop, Naseem struck after being reintroduced AGAIN, this time removing Shivam Dube on ball number two of his third over.
Hammered on a good length into the wicket with pace, Dube tried to work the ball through the on-side but ended up getting a leading edge that ballooned to the bowler. Naseem took the easiest of return catches to make it three and register his best ever T20I figures.
On a sticky New York wicket, the need of the hour for pacers was to land the ball on a good length, allowing the pitch to do its thing, making life difficult for the batters.
Naseem understood the assignment: a whopping 66% of his deliveries landed on either a good length or back-of-a-length.
Two years ago in the 2022 T20WC, Pakistan reached the final after being on the brink of elimination in the Super 12s. There, young Naseem was one of the architects of the turnaround, with him registering an economy of 5.83 in the 18 overs he bowled after the Zimbabwe loss.
It’s 2024 and Pakistan are once again on the brink of elimination, with them needing other results to go their way in order to make it to the Super 8s. Are we going to see another monster run from Naseem that will help Pakistan make a deep run?
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