The India-Pakistan matches are often delineation of the postulations of radical fallibility.
Pakistan playing against India in a World Cup semifinal, what else could you ask for? I shall elaborate the aesthetics and the philosophy of the two teams being pitted against each other in sporting events, it isn’t just going to be about cricket or a simple case of one team winning and the other slinking to adversity. The India-Pakistan matches are often delineation of the postulations of radical fallibility.
The India-Pakistan match makes me buttressed by the findings of cognitive linguistics. The cricket between the two countries employs metaphors rather than strict logic. Metaphors work by transferring postulations and contemplations from one set of circumstances to another and it is almost inevitable that the process will be carried too far. This can be best seen in the case of the hysterical responses that an India-Pakistan match evolves.
Predicting the outcome of the match isn’t a simple proposition. Recent findings of Pakistan’s patchy and controversial build-up to the World Cup and then their astounding show against Sri Lanka, Australia and West Indies had put them in a position of strength. India have had their share of glorious moments, the lows too.
Harbhajan Singh is not the ‘Bhajji’ he used to be; the bite is missing, the pivot isn’t really showing the equilibrium, the arm is restricted, the spin isn’t as vicious as it used to be. Only Zaheer Khan had ‘reversed’ and bowled quite magnificently, part-time left-arm spin of Yuvraj Singh could be effective against the westerners but it is unlikely to stir Pakistan or even Sri Lanka if they ever play again in the tournament. Sachin Tendulkar, inarguably, is a God. God of international cricket. However, India’s slumps (29/9 versus South Africa and 51/7 against the West Indies) were indicators that even they could be frail if hard-pressed. India’s top-tier is identifiably impenetrable. However, Umar Gul bowling with the new ball could be an interesting prospect. Virender Sehwag’s feet is hardly moving, just that peculiar hand-eye coordination. The clinical Yuvraj Singh has to fail, such have been his incessant high scores plus his ‘reactive’ and not ‘penetrative’ bowling.
Pakistan with Shahid Afridi in the wickets (21 so far in the championship), the archetypical ‘drift’ that he has been acquiring through re-modelling of his bowling action. The suspect opening pair and really ‘pedestrian’ batting overall are all what critics try amplifying, that’s just about the technicalities. The India-Pakistan match isn’t that simple. These findings in cognitive contemplations indicate that the way it works has some similarities with excitement that it is going to bring. Just as there is central vision, which is sharp and enters into a central consciousness, peripheral vision is blurred and perceived selectively. The prospective analysis of the India-Pakistan match, I believe, now seems to be a case of peripheral and not the central focus; centrally it would indeed become difficult to even hypothesise what could happen at Mohali.
To me, India start as favourites though impinged by the political pressures now being exerted. Playing in India, playing against Pakistan, MS should really be a concerned man. There is nothing quite like an India-Pakistan match to test MS Dhoni and Shahid Afridi’s captaincy. It will make or break them. What makes it so hard? Like being in a war, crisis is going to test them to their nerve-roots because the outcome is rarely predictable. Both Afridi and Dhoni should remember that crises have brought down many top-tier captains and their teams with them, while others have risen to the challenges to prove their significance, just a message for India. If it could happen to South Africa, it could happen to them. And for Afridi, he should know that ‘leaders develop through crises’. Who will pass the test? It is going to be a global meltdown.
(The writer is the Fellow Royal College of Physicians (Edin), member of the Royal College of Physicians (UK), official historian of Pakistan cricket, former cricket analyst of the Pakistan team and the Pakistan Cricket Board and a former manager of the Pakistan team)
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