Rizwan lends Pakistan a never-before steel
Runners are no longer permitted. But a batter may retire any time. Shrewd choice, given this is an ODI and not a T20, so there’s always time to make up for a lull. Not that there was a chance of any. Saud Shakeel was purring along. And Iftikhar Ahmed takes little time to hit a T20 tempo, regardless of the format. Plus, you don’t want to aggravate the cramp, not at a World Cup, not when the next match is against India. But this is Mohammad Rizwan, who prefers to smile through pain while back-calculating a combative win.
Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan celebrates after scoring a century (100 runs) during the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup one-day international (ODI) match vs Sri Lanka(AFP)
“You don’t want to give it away,” said Rizwan minutes after shepherding Pakistan to victory with an unbeaten 131 at Hyderabad on Tuesday. “Because you know the bowling of Sri Lanka, they have decent bowlers. If I give the wicket at that moment, it’s difficult for the new batsman who follows.” Fair enough. But in a moving feast that was a match-winning stand between Rizwan and Abdullah Shafique, it didn’t quite register why Rizwan wasn’t the first choice — like in T20Is— opener in the first place and Shafique his wingman. There might be a Pakistani logic at work here, viewing one-dayers as a crunched version of Tests while the rest of the world treat it to be a 50-over avatar of T20.
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Rizwan doesn’t mind though. “In T20, Misbah-ul-Haq asked me to open. And now, the management has given me No.4 in ODIs. Maybe that’s why I can see things. I think I had this thing from the beginning, the ability to adjust to the demands of different positions in the batting order.” Rizwan achieves that with amazing clarity. “I have played T20 World Cups before. There is a difference here. My batting order is No.4, I must play a little differently. If you look at any team in the world, the No.4 player is different, or No.3. Because this player should be able to play fast bowlers as well as spinners.”
For Pakistan, about to enter an unknown world in Ahmedabad, winning was imperative in Hyderabad which Rizwan said felt like home — “like Rawalpindi”. Not just for points, but for momentum. The bowling was mediocre but trust Rizwan to put a positive spin even on that. “When we were bowling, I think it was the 32nd or 33rd over, I told Nawaz and others that it would be great if we restrict them to 340-350. If it goes above that, it means we’re not bowling well.” They weren’t, even for argument’s sake. Hindsight may decree that marginally better fielding would have stemmed the run flow long before Kusal Mendis kicked down the door but Pakistan also won’t exactly feel very warm looking back at their bowling.
Bigger worries can emerge still. Like a Babar Azam dismissal, one of those clutch moments of cricket’s overdependence on one man in a team game. Plus, this is Pakistan — pedestrian one day, absolutely brilliant the other. So, when Sri Lanka applied that hand brake, Rizwan took it upon himself to strip away the nervousness and focus on breaking down the chase into phases, telling Abdullah, “Don’t look at the board.” He further explains: “There was a separate plan till the 20th over, there was a separate plan till the 30th, and then there was a separate plan till the 40th.”
Rizwan’s innings typified the response of a crisis man — rotating the strike, going up to the partner and thrashing out plans, warning him of changing fields, leading the attacking when needed, but more significantly, just staying put. And while innings like this need a lot of gumption, you also need a fair bit of luck. “I believe in luck,” said Rizwan. “When I started my innings today, the first edge that went for three, went over the fielder’s head. It could’ve so easily gone to hand. I just believe in hard work and leave the rest to god.”
Not even when he was beset with cramp after skipping down the track to hit Dhananjaya de Silva over his head for a six. “When I was cramping, I was mindful of not playing a stupid shot at that moment. I’ve seen how difficult such situations can be for those who bat at No.7 or No.8.” This is where the curve of Rizwan’s batting differs from others. Pain often clouds the mind into entering an all-or-nothing mindset, prompting the set batter into straying from his path and plunge his team into chaos. But Rizwan insists on being in charge of his innings, the chase, and his destiny. “I haven’t done anything special,” he insisted. The world will differ though.
