Mercurial Afridi shows he hasn't run out of fairy dust

Shahid Afridi is 34 years and two days old today but he still plays like a 16-year-old… audacious, reckless, fearless and maybe even, downright idiotic at times. In the eyes of most watchers too, he is still a kid of 16 and he will forever be that way – still throwing bat at every ball, still making Geoffrey Boycott marvel at his powerful handshake and still making the world look at him through the thin veil of suspicion (just how old is he really?). On Sunday, with five balls left, Pakistan needed 10 to win off 5 balls against India in the Asia Cup with the last pair together. India had the slight edge but with Afridi in the middle, all bets were off. No one know quite knows what to expect from Afridi these days. He could come out and try to slog the first ball out of the ground – and by that we mean, a proper cross-batted power-packed slog – and get out, doing it. Or he could produce a cameo that would make everyone talk about his wasted talent. He could also retire and then come back the next day. Either which way, he doesn’t seem to care. There is a single-mindedness to him. He wants to play the game his way and that is all that matters to him. On Sunday, his way happened to be the right one. He was unusually restrained for most of his innings (34 off 18 balls) – picking the balls to hit. Usually, he picks which ball not to hit and launches his bat at everything else. [caption id=“attachment_1416549” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Afridi was at his mercurial best. AP[/caption] Ravinchandran Ashwin had had a good day in the middle. His variations were working well, he had just bowled Saeed Ajmal round the legs with his carrom ball off the first ball of the over. So Kohli’s decision to throw the ball over to the off-spinner was not surprising. He was feeling confident but Afridi’s ability to clear the boundary line makes him a feared opponent. Ashwin dropped the third ball of the last over just a wee bit short, Afridi quickly made room outside the off-stump, picked his area and swung at the ball. It only hit the bottom of the bat but it still flew over the boundary line at cover. Next ball, he once again looked to make room. But Ashwin was smarter, he had bowled in closer to the batsman. Afridi swung away nonetheless and the leading edge carried over the fielder at long-on even as skipper Virat Kohli looked on in hope. The Pathan’s power had done the trick. Sixes off the bottom of the bat and the edge had won Pakistan the match. It could happen only in Afridi’s world. He hits a six every 18 balls he faces in international cricket – the highest strike-rate the game of cricket has ever seen and on Sunday, he just added another two notches to that legend. Later, he said he was confident of handling Ashwin’s variations. “I knew that I could hit his carrom ball and I had spotted it. It was pulled back slightly but I connected it really well,” Afridi said. “He had the field set on the on-side, keeping the fielders up on the off-side. I thought that if I could play through extra cover, I can find runs through that region.” Earlier in the match, Rameez Raja in the commentary box watched Afridi make a brilliant stop while fielding and he could help but exclaim: “Shahid Afridi dived to stop the ball. If he does that, he must be serious.” A dictionary would define mercurial as someone whose mood or behavior is changeable and unpredictable. Afridi fits the bill but after failures against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, he wanted to get it right this time round. He was serious. It was evident while he was bowling and then in his batting as well. “I had played some stupid shots in the previous games to get out. I know that my batting is very important to my team, so I have to be consistent in my batting. It helps the team a lot. I had to play sensibly. I wanted to bring down the [target]. “If I have 15-25 overs to bat, captain tells me to play singles and doubles. I become double-minded. It is not in my nature. The lesser the overs, I feel better and play better. I play single-mindedly. That’s what makes me comfortable.” That’s what makes Afridi comfortable and his opponents uncomfortable. Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq believes that this win will stop the critics from going after Afridi. “We expect innings like that from him. Whenever he [takes his] time in the middle and plays sensibly, he can be very dangerous. He already did it quite a few times, and this was one of his best innings.” And as it turned out, Afridi’s best often has a world-beating quality to it. Now, Pakistan will hope he can keep it together for the rest of the tournament but no one, not even Afridi, knows the answer to that one.