Return of the SHWAAB!
thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud bAng!!
And that was his Run up .. Which starts just a meter inside the boundary line!
It was one of those Spiderman stories for Shwaab yesterday (pronunciation courtesy Aamir Sohail by the way).. Guy down and out - banned from playing - disgraced for his 'badness' - comes back for goodness' sake and pulls off something special - it was the more poetic version of 'comeback' and he certainly took to it seriously and with all the passion he ever imagined he would give to this game.
It helps watching every cricket match sometimes - you manage to see these rare superhero sightings LIVE! Infact, I am not a huge fan of Shwaab anyways - but the character, the passion, the sheer skill and sheer pace he possessed and flaunted - could have been scary if I was on the Delhi team!
Steaming in from the boundary line, bowling at 150 km/h, sweating like crazy, bowling short, bowling length, balls seaming in-seaming out - who said 20-20 is for batters?? It was the most exciting bowling spell in 20-20 history afaik - He ran like a raging bull and bowled like it was his life at stake! And probably it was.
Sehwag's wicket was a perfect outswinger first up - in any test match this would be a notebook opener's dismissal - sadly, no batsman in 20-20 has time or patience to get out like this :P .. it's just not a stylish way of getting out in this form! This one really charged up Shwaab and with his signature Airplane-take off-celebration, sweat running all over - he had just begun.
Gambhir's wicket was a bit lucky - thanks to dada's experience as a captain, he had the right man at backward point - the 6 foot long subway sandwich called David Hussey. The ball could have easily flown over the man and gone for 4, or even 6 - reminding you of the Sehwag-Sachin bashing of Shwaab back in the 2003 World Cup, but wasn't to be. Gambhir just managed to give the way outside off stump short ball a strong jab but not a full go and managed to entertain Hussey at Backward Point. Wicket no. 2 and everybody just knew by now that this is going to be Shwaab's day.
Wicket 3 and 4 were just sheer pace and accuracy - delightful wickets for a superfast bowler (and there aren't too many). First a short ball on the ribcage - De Villiers fancied the pull which he's actually good at, but the extra pace was too much and he only managed to sky it to Taibu on the on-side. Manoj Tiwary had no idea where the next ball hit him and how and where it came from. People argue that it could have been an inside edge - but nonetheless, it was a superfast good length ball that sharply seamed in - very similar to the famous Allan Donald-Sachin Tendulkar clean bowled.
By this time, it wasn't about Kolkata, wasn't about Delhi and wasn't about the IPL. It was about a down-and-out FAST bowler in the middle of 80,000 cheering fans, ripping through a top order and scripting a dream comeback.
It's funny how just 3 overs - 18 balls can change everything.
posted by Prady ! @ 1:02 PM
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