During the second day's play at Gadaffi, a run fest was underway. There is no point in trying to tell you all that happened, too much of it took place at once, if yesterday some one had let the dogs loose, today the whole zoo must have been exposed. This wasn't, in other words, the kind of day where you would expect any such marvel moments that Rodney Cavalier spoke of. But one over from Harbajjan Singh to Shahid Afridi was something special. 27 came of it, the first 24 off the first four balls; it was the second most expensive over in test cricket history. It's become a cricket tattoo that's etched in my mind now; it's unlikely I'll ever forget it.
It's almost an injustice that I have to use the word 'hit' for the sixes Afridi hit in this over, because he doesn't ever hit a cricket ball in my opinion, he bludgeons it. Even his front foot defensive stroke is a bludgeon, a massive bash, straight down the bowler's face, making him look all helpless and feeble. After the day's play Afridi told Ramiz Raza what had really happened in that over. It was the most fascinating mini interview I've heard in recent times.
'Before that over', Afridi started, beaming in confidence, 'I went up to Kamran and told him I was going to try and hit six sixes off Harbajjan'. I thought I'd misheard, but he really did say try. There are a few big hitters in the international circuit right now, there's Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Andrew Symonds and Ricardo Powell to mention a few, but how many of these would try and premeditate to hit six sixes off an over in a test match? Kamran Akmal, who made a faster then a run a ball century him self, perhaps awestruck, perhaps just following the saying that it doesn't matter what you tell a maverick, he managed simply, 'Good luck, Shahid Bhai' in reply.
That luck, it was proved later, wasn't really needed. The first four balls were all deposited handsomely over the leg side boundary, which was being patrolled, please note, by no less then four fielders at that time. The Gadaffi Stadium let me tell you has the biggest outfield in any cricket stadium in the world. The boundary is routinely brought well inside for all the matches, but the actual field it self is easily in excess of a 100 yards long. Afridi cleared this entire space each time, and he did so easily, ridiculously easily. It was almost as if each successive one was bigger then the next. These weren't sixes, really, more like 10 and 8s if not 12s, big monstrous kind of things.
The fourth, Afridi said, after crossing the boundary landed some where in a small water deposit, thus rendering the ball partially damp. 'I tried to hit the next ball over mid wicket but because the ball was wet it went to mid-on instead,' he elaborated. Ramiz by now was smiling, Afridi continued, 'If it wasn't wet, I would have hit six sixes', he asserted with such assurance it might have been to remind Ramiz that he wasn't kidding. There was so much nonchalance in the way he spoke; you couldn't tell he was talking about an over like this.
The miscued shot it self went high up in the air before it was converged by two fielders running in from either side, it landed in no man's land and Afridi got away with scoring two runs. One of the television commentators at that time, Arun Lal, stipulated Afridi needn't take these risks as he was approaching a significant milestone, but does Afridi really have the word risk in his vocabulary? I don't think so Arun.
Afridi later brought up his century, with a straight slog that went one bounce for four. It had come only from 78 balls, with the last 47 balls fetching him 82 of those runs. Before he acknowledged the applauds from his team mates and that from the sizable Lahore crowd, he rehearsed the stroke again, probably in view of the fact that he hadn't timed it perfectly, that it had gone for just a four and not another six. But the body language was suggestive more of a slaughterer not quite happy with the how much blood had been spilled by the result of an assault.
Back in the Ten Sports studio, Nasser Hussain reacted to the interview, literally in shock. 'When I was playing,' he recalled, 'I used to tell my partner that I'd be lucky to get a single in the next over, and this lad tells his partner he is going to try and hit six sixes', ' Try and hit six sixes' he repeated, in mixture of both disbelief and awe he then shook his head. 'Amazing' he said at last. And amazing it was indeed. Ramiz was then approached again by the men in the studio, this time he was catching up with Kamran. He too though seemingly was still recovering from the shock. For a man who had scored an unbeaten hundred him self, the better half of his interview was spent admiring 'Shahid Bhai'.
A six is the most psychologically damning thing for a bowler. Shane Warne once said that he used to have nightmares about Sachin Tendulkar hitting him back over his head for six after six after six. The most famous six off all time, by Miandad off Sharma on the final ball of a final in Sharjah, was believed to have such a gladiatorial psychological affect that a whole decade of Indian bowlers might have been affected. The influence, it is rumored, was finally neutralized by Sachin Tendulkar, during his magical innings of 98 against Pakistan in the 2003 World Cup. Wonder how many sleepless nights Harbajjan will have over the coming weeks, and how many years it will take for Harbajjan for these moments to blur in his memory. One gets the feeling that it might not be any time soon.
Zainub Razvi is an 18-year-old student and avid cricket fan from Karachi, Pakistan. She maintains her regular blog here.first published:January 15, 2006, 15:07 ISTlast updated:January 15, 2006, 15:07 IST
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Rodney Cavalier is chairman of the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust; he once said that cricket is one of the few sports where intensity has its own reward for the spectators. "Each delivery" he said, "has an intrinsic significance which melts into the narrative of the over, the over takes its place in that session, the session becomes a chapter in that day, each day is a volume in the story of a Test, the Test stands alone as a part of the unfolding pageant of the history of the game". "There is no such thing as a pattern, one moment of glory can fox the compass of rhythm", sometimes we as fans get lucky enough to witness some of these moments. And then they live on with you for the rest of your lives, like cricket tattoos.
During the second day's play at Gadaffi, a run fest was underway. There is no point in trying to tell you all that happened, too much of it took place at once, if yesterday some one had let the dogs loose, today the whole zoo must have been exposed. This wasn't, in other words, the kind of day where you would expect any such marvel moments that Rodney Cavalier spoke of. But one over from Harbajjan Singh to Shahid Afridi was something special. 27 came of it, the first 24 off the first four balls; it was the second most expensive over in test cricket history. It's become a cricket tattoo that's etched in my mind now; it's unlikely I'll ever forget it.
It's almost an injustice that I have to use the word 'hit' for the sixes Afridi hit in this over, because he doesn't ever hit a cricket ball in my opinion, he bludgeons it. Even his front foot defensive stroke is a bludgeon, a massive bash, straight down the bowler's face, making him look all helpless and feeble. After the day's play Afridi told Ramiz Raza what had really happened in that over. It was the most fascinating mini interview I've heard in recent times.
'Before that over', Afridi started, beaming in confidence, 'I went up to Kamran and told him I was going to try and hit six sixes off Harbajjan'. I thought I'd misheard, but he really did say try. There are a few big hitters in the international circuit right now, there's Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Andrew Symonds and Ricardo Powell to mention a few, but how many of these would try and premeditate to hit six sixes off an over in a test match? Kamran Akmal, who made a faster then a run a ball century him self, perhaps awestruck, perhaps just following the saying that it doesn't matter what you tell a maverick, he managed simply, 'Good luck, Shahid Bhai' in reply.
That luck, it was proved later, wasn't really needed. The first four balls were all deposited handsomely over the leg side boundary, which was being patrolled, please note, by no less then four fielders at that time. The Gadaffi Stadium let me tell you has the biggest outfield in any cricket stadium in the world. The boundary is routinely brought well inside for all the matches, but the actual field it self is easily in excess of a 100 yards long. Afridi cleared this entire space each time, and he did so easily, ridiculously easily. It was almost as if each successive one was bigger then the next. These weren't sixes, really, more like 10 and 8s if not 12s, big monstrous kind of things.
The fourth, Afridi said, after crossing the boundary landed some where in a small water deposit, thus rendering the ball partially damp. 'I tried to hit the next ball over mid wicket but because the ball was wet it went to mid-on instead,' he elaborated. Ramiz by now was smiling, Afridi continued, 'If it wasn't wet, I would have hit six sixes', he asserted with such assurance it might have been to remind Ramiz that he wasn't kidding. There was so much nonchalance in the way he spoke; you couldn't tell he was talking about an over like this.
The miscued shot it self went high up in the air before it was converged by two fielders running in from either side, it landed in no man's land and Afridi got away with scoring two runs. One of the television commentators at that time, Arun Lal, stipulated Afridi needn't take these risks as he was approaching a significant milestone, but does Afridi really have the word risk in his vocabulary? I don't think so Arun.
Afridi later brought up his century, with a straight slog that went one bounce for four. It had come only from 78 balls, with the last 47 balls fetching him 82 of those runs. Before he acknowledged the applauds from his team mates and that from the sizable Lahore crowd, he rehearsed the stroke again, probably in view of the fact that he hadn't timed it perfectly, that it had gone for just a four and not another six. But the body language was suggestive more of a slaughterer not quite happy with the how much blood had been spilled by the result of an assault.
Back in the Ten Sports studio, Nasser Hussain reacted to the interview, literally in shock. 'When I was playing,' he recalled, 'I used to tell my partner that I'd be lucky to get a single in the next over, and this lad tells his partner he is going to try and hit six sixes', ' Try and hit six sixes' he repeated, in mixture of both disbelief and awe he then shook his head. 'Amazing' he said at last. And amazing it was indeed. Ramiz was then approached again by the men in the studio, this time he was catching up with Kamran. He too though seemingly was still recovering from the shock. For a man who had scored an unbeaten hundred him self, the better half of his interview was spent admiring 'Shahid Bhai'.
A six is the most psychologically damning thing for a bowler. Shane Warne once said that he used to have nightmares about Sachin Tendulkar hitting him back over his head for six after six after six. The most famous six off all time, by Miandad off Sharma on the final ball of a final in Sharjah, was believed to have such a gladiatorial psychological affect that a whole decade of Indian bowlers might have been affected. The influence, it is rumored, was finally neutralized by Sachin Tendulkar, during his magical innings of 98 against Pakistan in the 2003 World Cup. Wonder how many sleepless nights Harbajjan will have over the coming weeks, and how many years it will take for Harbajjan for these moments to blur in his memory. One gets the feeling that it might not be any time soon.
Zainub Razvi is an 18-year-old student and avid cricket fan from Karachi, Pakistan. She maintains her regular blog here.
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