I still remember the last few matches of Brendon Mccullum. I remember him as a fearless batsman who batted like a powerful hitter, who can hit any ball. In his ending days he was literally smashing everything coming to him. He was successful in doing so. We all loved him. Now consider the case of Shahid Afridi. Like Mccullum, we all love him. He is like that bomb which is supposed to be very explosive but turns out to be not the one. No doubt, he has won a lot of games for Pakistan and in doing so,he has set and broken many records. But if, he has not showed something in his doing so, is resilience and compassion, the quality to stay there and play till his team wins.
In the cricketing history we have seen a lot of players who come to limelight with some serious hitting, but vanishes with the same pace. Considering that, Afridi has done a phenomenal job. He has been playing for around 20 years now. Coming back from a retirement is never easy. So, overall he has done fine. The problem lies in the fact that Every single time he has come to bat, people believes that he may do wonders. At back of the mind everybody knows he can take his team to the winning side, but then he shatters and bows out. It’s a well known understanding that, you can not hit 10 sixes of 10 balls. But,If you closely examine his batting he seriously tries to do that. On a determinant front that looks like at least he is trying. But, in reality. Not happening.
No wonder that he has hit the most number of 6’s . Obviously in his tryst with destiny for hitting every ball for six, he must have hit like 1 or 2 sixes per match. But if you look to his average,he falls short. At least for a person of his stature with so much experience, these figures are unexpectable
Having said that, I believe this is going to be the last match of Afridi as they crash out of the world cup. I belive he has done enough for his country. But he could have done a lot better by being little sensible. He had power. He had shots. But with all power and no thinking, this was destined to happen. He is not critisized simply, but because, people once believed in his power. But most of the times he has put them down. I am fan of Shahid Afridi, wanted to see him take them over the line against aussies the other day. But he couldn’t. And a generous suggestion in the end. You could have gathered more liking if you would have shown little sensibility today in your batting, than talking kashmir! Cheers! as you cricketers say! 😀
ABHAS VIJAYVARGIYA 