I watched every ball of that series and dont think that our batting was special in one game Junaid rattled India for 29-4 and thus we had to chase something 240ish the due factor played a huge role in that chase similarly in next game Jamshed flukishly hit another ton and we won the game, the third game which was a glorious opportunity to whitewash our arch-rivals we inexplicably bizarrely bottled or choked and bundled out while chasing lowish 160 odd still remember that ugly dismissal of Hafeez as he batted low down the order
and then the whole world witnessed a team losing the series but still celebrated like they achieved something unthinkable !
That is because you are not looking at the context.
Prior to that series we had lost 0-8 overseas and even in home series we lost 1-2 against England.
That was super crushing.
Mohinder Amarnath was going on about Dhoni in TV...whole media was against Dhoni....SRt didn't retire in tests prior to that and was a burden...Ashwin flopped big time against England at home....overseas whitewashes....over the hill Sehwag and Gambo....Yuvi never looked the same player and was a flop against England in test series and dropped easy sitter against Pakistan in the first ODI not to mention his horrible fielding....add to this the fact that Rohit was a huge waste of space in the middle order...Raina was looking so out of zone...
Dhoni was probably at the lowest point in his cricketing life in terms of stress.
The morale was down the GUTTER and we got whacked by Pakistan left, right and centre. Lost the series without a proper fight in the 2nd ODI.
We had 1 final ODI to salvage something but things looked hopeless.
When we batted, another collapse ensued and it looked like the same thing all over again before Dhoni's 30 odd and a few others chipped in to make the score 160.
When Pak batted, they were waiting to play off the pacers (cos the conditions favored them) and go after the spinners like the prev 2 ODIs.
Things were going to plan and it looked like an EASY whitewash that would have been more soul crushing.
At that time, Ashwin got a fluke wicket of Jamshed with a bad delivery and Indians started putting in pressure. We just fought inspite of all hopes lost.
Pak stuttered and Indian spinners went from strength to strength (both Ashwin and Jaddu...especially Jaddu)...and after a long and tough fight we won the game.
The CELEBRATIONS WERE HUGE and I as a fan was jumping cos the context of the win was big. It was something to salvage after months and months of phainty against different sides.
After the series, the selectors woke up...changed the squad and i the next 2 ICC ODI tournaments we lost 1 ODI (and that was against Aussies in WC 2015 SF).
So yeah....from our point of view that win was huge.
Now we trounce SL 5-0 at home and nobody is even bothered. Won against Aus at home but nowhere close to that much euphoria we got against that Pak game because of what we went through.
Life is like that. When the going is good...incredible things seem normal. When the going is bad...even the smallest of things look like a great accomplishment and its perfectly alright to celebrate it like crazy cos that's a break.
