Kainat Qazi
Debutant
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2017
- Runs
- 1
Shared this on my FB couple days ago after the victory...wanted to share here as well to revel in the achievement with my fellow cricket lovers. Meant as a quick read rather than a Jarrod Kimber-style article. I am a lifelong Pakistan Cricket Fan.
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Two years ago, we were struggling to even qualify for the Champions Trophy.
We languished at #9 in the world rankings (only top 8 play in the tournament, a mini-World Cup), and by the skin of our teeth, landed two points above the Windies at #8 before the cutoff date.
We have no first-class structure in our country, no expensive academies, no exposure to the grand IPL, consistently failed ourselves with match-fixing or corruption allegations, a make-shift home in the UAE for the last decade, terrorism as our synonym by the global media and as an enemy by the local, and had no international cricket (barring one Zimbabwe tour) in our cricket-starved nation in the last nearly 10 years. We are deprived, desperate, and desolate.
We were the lowest-ranked team coming into the tournament, thrashed by archrivals India in our very first game, and by all accounts, a headless chicken that was on the chopping block to nowhere. Everyone thought we would be the first team kicked out, as our ranking unsubtly suggested.
But then, we scripted one of the greatest comebacks in sport history. And made a mockery of rankings and logic in the process.
It was the perfect storm of talent, skill, luck, timing, and opportunity. We beat the #1 ranked team the very next game in a rain-assisted victory, scraped through in a virtual quarter-final, imperiously disposed of #4 ranked hosts and pre-tourney faves England in the semifinal, and then the crowning glory -- in a pressure-cooker game being watched by 1 billion+ people, thoroughly dismantled the same opponent we played in our very first game, on the biggest stage, in the first-ever ICC 50-over final between the two storied sides, recording the largest margin of victory ever in an ICC tournament final. In EMPHATIC style. It was too fitting. Every performance exponentially got better and better. This was a team of inexperienced youngsters, with 3 of them making their debut in the tournament, and a positively inspiring captain showing the world what wearing your heart on your sleeve can do. It was electrifying and attractive madness.
Hopeless, brilliant, unpredictable, mercurial, sublime, consistently inconsistent, phenomenal, flawed, unbelievable, entertaining, sloppy, clinical, unorthodox, bold, comical, passionate, sensational, and champions...we are none of these individually but all of them together. We went from unlikely participants to heavy underdogs to captivating heroes from start to finish, beating the best sides in the world when we have no cricket back home. What kind of mental tenacity, grit, and resilience does that even take?
This was dream-viewing for sports enthusiasts and a long, long time coming for perennial Pakistan cricket fans. THIS, is why I fell in love with this sport a long time ago...because it united us Pakistanis across ethnic, linguistic, socio-economic, and religious lines like nothing else ever could. Cricket, I Love You. #BleedingGreen forEVER.
#PadThaPehle #DilDilPak #GeoTohAise #CorneredTigersVol2 #Zindabad #HappyEid2017
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Two years ago, we were struggling to even qualify for the Champions Trophy.
We languished at #9 in the world rankings (only top 8 play in the tournament, a mini-World Cup), and by the skin of our teeth, landed two points above the Windies at #8 before the cutoff date.
We have no first-class structure in our country, no expensive academies, no exposure to the grand IPL, consistently failed ourselves with match-fixing or corruption allegations, a make-shift home in the UAE for the last decade, terrorism as our synonym by the global media and as an enemy by the local, and had no international cricket (barring one Zimbabwe tour) in our cricket-starved nation in the last nearly 10 years. We are deprived, desperate, and desolate.
We were the lowest-ranked team coming into the tournament, thrashed by archrivals India in our very first game, and by all accounts, a headless chicken that was on the chopping block to nowhere. Everyone thought we would be the first team kicked out, as our ranking unsubtly suggested.
But then, we scripted one of the greatest comebacks in sport history. And made a mockery of rankings and logic in the process.
It was the perfect storm of talent, skill, luck, timing, and opportunity. We beat the #1 ranked team the very next game in a rain-assisted victory, scraped through in a virtual quarter-final, imperiously disposed of #4 ranked hosts and pre-tourney faves England in the semifinal, and then the crowning glory -- in a pressure-cooker game being watched by 1 billion+ people, thoroughly dismantled the same opponent we played in our very first game, on the biggest stage, in the first-ever ICC 50-over final between the two storied sides, recording the largest margin of victory ever in an ICC tournament final. In EMPHATIC style. It was too fitting. Every performance exponentially got better and better. This was a team of inexperienced youngsters, with 3 of them making their debut in the tournament, and a positively inspiring captain showing the world what wearing your heart on your sleeve can do. It was electrifying and attractive madness.
Hopeless, brilliant, unpredictable, mercurial, sublime, consistently inconsistent, phenomenal, flawed, unbelievable, entertaining, sloppy, clinical, unorthodox, bold, comical, passionate, sensational, and champions...we are none of these individually but all of them together. We went from unlikely participants to heavy underdogs to captivating heroes from start to finish, beating the best sides in the world when we have no cricket back home. What kind of mental tenacity, grit, and resilience does that even take?
This was dream-viewing for sports enthusiasts and a long, long time coming for perennial Pakistan cricket fans. THIS, is why I fell in love with this sport a long time ago...because it united us Pakistanis across ethnic, linguistic, socio-economic, and religious lines like nothing else ever could. Cricket, I Love You. #BleedingGreen forEVER.
#PadThaPehle #DilDilPak #GeoTohAise #CorneredTigersVol2 #Zindabad #HappyEid2017
