Fawad Alam – Bulletproof Truth

Rawalpindi rips, then rests

Batting in the morning was about staying out of trouble. In the afternoon it was no trouble.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

ON a clear day in Rawalpindi you can see all the way to the foothills of the mighty Himalayas. Thursday was, for the most part, not a clear day. It was grey and drippy, and the wall of gloom that dominated the sky kept a respectful distance until tea, when it soaked the scene.

South Africa would be forgiven for being quietly relieved at not having to endure a third session. After a hurtling start in which they removed Pakistan’s top order at the cost of one run across 23 deliveries, they laboured for no reward for the next 43.1 overs.

Given the start they made the South Africans would have been justified in thinking the day would offer them opportunities for more success. But a pitch that spat with spin in the dampness of a dewy morning smiled ever more broadly on batters as the day lengthened. The outfield was as slick as an ice rink throughout, adding value to almost all strokes. “With the newish ball and moisture, the ball sort of sticks in the wicket a bit more,” Keshav Maharaj told reporters. “We saw that, as the day went on and the moisture seeped away from the surface, the turn was minimised substantially … Everyone was a bit confused as to what to expect but it seems pretty hard. The moisture might bind it together come tomorrow. At the end of the day tomorrow we’ll probably have a clearer idea and understanding as to how the wicket’s going to deteriorate, if it is going to deteriorate.”

Babar Azam and Fawad Alam made hay whether or not the sun was shining, adding 123. They remain so focused on forging ahead on Friday that neither was made available at the post-play press conference. Babar’s textbook technique dazzled in his driving through the covers. Fawad’s extraordinary unorthodoxy didn’t get in the way of his off drive. They were the embodiment of the sacred and the profane. As Maharaj said, “They absorbed pressure nicely and bided their time, and after lunch it seemed to get a little bit easier to bat on the wicket.”

It was indeed a tale of two sessions. Whereas batting in the morning was an exercise in staying out of trouble, in the afternoon it was all about not being given any trouble — neither by the surface nor by the bowlers. Babar and Fawad looked as if they were making themselves comfortable to watch the steady scoring of runs, not as if they would to have to score those runs themselves. Batting isn’t easy at this level, but they made it seem so.

It was anything but when Maharaj was introduced in the eighth over. His first delivery bounced and jagged away from Imran Butt, who pushed forward defensively and steered a healthy edge to the single slip, Temba Bavuma — who dropped an eminently takeable catch. That cost Maharaj a single. It was the only run he conceded from his first 28 balls, in which he had Butt caught behind and trapped Azhar Ali in front for a duck. The most impressive aspect of Maharaj’s bowling wasn’t that he turned the ball on a turning pitch — anything else would have been grounds for concern — but that he realised the value of his quicker, straighter delivery even in those circumstances. He used it to great effect.

And here we need to pause. Criticism of Quinton de Kock’s captaincy is not difficult to find, and some of it is warranted. He was found wanting in the first Test in Karachi in the key areas of referring umpiring decisions and making bowling changes. The sensitivity of the subject is perhaps why South Africa’s team management has taken issue with reports that Mark Boucher has confirmed that the Rawalpindi Test would be De Kock’s last at the helm. Boucher told a press conference on Wednesday: “When we get back after this tour we’ve got a bit of time before our next Test series. So we can sit down and make a good, solid call on who can take over from him and release him from that burden, and try and get the best out of him.” De Kock was appointed until the end of the season. With Australia pulling out of their series in March over fears of South Africa’s Covid-19 infection rate, the end of the Test season is, as things stand, the end of this match. Management says Boucher’s words have been “misinterpreted”. It is difficult to understand how.

But the point of interrupting the narrative is not to brew an argument. It is to make sure De Kock is given the credit for tossing the ball to Maharaj so early in the match. Only one other South Africa slow bowler has taken two wickets in the first 15 overs of a Test — Reggie Schwarz, whose googly was his stock ball, opened the bowling with another wrist spinner, Aubrey Faulkner, against England at the Old Wanderers in Johannesburg in January 1906. Schwarz dismissed Plum Warner and Lucky Denton with only six runs scored.

Whether De Kock knows any of that doesn’t matter. What does is that he summed up the conditions and the situation and made what proved to be the right decision for his team. That’s what captains do. Good ones, at any rate. When South Africa choose their next Test captain, they should remember this moment — especially if De Kock adds more like it to his curriculum vitae.

Back to the real world of Rawalpindi, where Maharaj’s consistent quality from one end was complemented by a single flash of brilliance from the other an hour before lunch. Anrich Nortjé speared a delivery at Abid Ali, who edged it onto his body. Lurking like a 1.85-metre hawk at short leg, Aiden Markram flung himself rightward and took a fine catch low to the ground and far from where he had crouched.

Babar was joined by Fawad, and Maharaj was proved human after all when Babar hit the last two balls of the next over through cover point and fine leg for four. Fawad clipped the first delivery of the next over, bowled by Nortjé, through Markram’s legs for another boundary. Five overs passed, none of them scoreless. In the context of what had gone before, you could feel the fulcrum tilting and the advantage sliding the other way.

Then George Linde, in his second over, sent down six spotless deliveries to Fawad.

Would he wrestle the match back into South Africa’s corner? No. Babar hammered Linde down the ground in his next over. Before the ball reached the outfield it hit the little finger on Linde’s bowling hand — which he clutched as he ran off, blood spattering onto his whites as he went. He did not return.

South Africa picked all three spinners they have in their squad for the Karachi Test, only for Tabraiz Shamsi to suffer a back spasm 20 minutes before the toss. Doubt about Shamsi’s readiness took him out of the equation for Rawalpindi, but there was no doubt both Maharaj and Linde would play. Now the visitors were down to Maharaj, not counting part-timers like Dean Elgar and Markram. Linde’s finger was stitched and bandaged, and X-rays did not reveal a fracture. “It’s fine,” he could be seen saying, with a dismissive shake of his head, on the sidelines on Thursday while holding a ball and going through the motions of his bowling action. “I was concerned for his well-being, but I’m glad to know that he’s feeling a lot better,” Maharaj said. “If all goes well he should take the field at some stage tomorrow.”

Maharaj himself started the match with an injury: “I was bowling on Tuesday and I felt a really sharp pain in my abdominal rib cage area. I was a bit concerned and it’s still there, but our medical staff sorted me out and made sure I was ready to play this Test match.” On the evidence of the 25 overs he bowled on Thursday, some of them rasping with threats, most of them immaculate, Maharaj will get through this test in one piece. And through this Test with several more wickets. You can see that happening, clearly.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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From Africa to Asia, and back

“Albeit it is a small step, at least there’s a step in the right direction.” – Aiden Markram on his first half-century in Asia.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

AFRICA isn’t Asia. Asia isn’t Africa. Contrasting conditions are part of what makes Test cricket so intriguing. For aficionados, at least. For players, it’s more like trying not to make an idiot of yourself on what looks like a pitch but behaves like 22 yards from another planet. That’s particularly true for top order batters, and even more so for openers.

Aiden Markram knows the feeling only too well. In South Africa he has scored 1,449 runs, among them four centuries, in 32 innings. At home he averages 46.74, has faced more than 100 balls in an innings nine times, and more than 200 thrice. All of his other innings have been in Asia where, going into the Karachi Test, he totalled 97 runs — an average of 10.78. He had reached 20 only once, in the same innings in which he faced more than 50 balls for the only time. But he had never made it to 40, or survived 80 deliveries.

Would that change when he walked out to open the batting with Dean Elgar at the National Stadium on Tuesday morning in the first innings of the Test series? That alone represented change. South Africa had lost the toss and fielded first in all four of Markram’s other Tests in the subcontinent. Or, as Markram told an online press conference on Friday, “We started batting when the ball started turning.”

But that was the extent of what was different for Markram in the first innings. He faced 16 balls for his 13, which ended when he pushed forward defensively and edged an away swinger from Shaheen Afridi to second slip. It was the first chink in South Africa’s armour, and they were dismissed for 220 in 69.2 overs. Pakistan, powered by Fawad Alam’s 109, replied with 378.

“We had a chance to learn how the Pakistanis played in their first innings,” Markram said. “Just observing how they went about it — the ability to back your defence, even in conditions where the ball starts turning, is important.”

Thus schooled, Markram took guard in the second innings. He stood firm for 204 deliveries and made 74. “Albeit it is a small step, at least there’s a step in the right direction,” he said. “There’s still lots of learning and growing for me to do in conditions like these. It was challenging for me to accept spending time [at the crease] and not worry about scoring, but that was one of the things that had to be done on a wicket like that.”

It was a surface, it should be noted, that was not prepared to favour the home side unduly. Although slow, it offered all a fair chance of success. Fawad’s was the only hundred, but there were five half-centuries. Although 18 wickets fell to spin, 13 belonged to the seamers. Even so, it remained a subcontinent pitch, which had previously proved Markram’s downfall. Not that his performance can be considered an unqualified success considering he got out 16 balls before the close on Thursday by prodding Nauman Ali to silly point. That was among three wickets to fall in the last eight overs of the third day, one which belonged to Rassie van der Dussen — who had shared a stand of 127 with Markram.

“It was so close to stumps, and if I could have managed to find my way through that and started over [on Friday] it could have helped settle the changeroom and helped us post a bigger target,” Markram said. “I’m to blame for that but there’s also an element of confidence, which I’ll try and take from the innings.”

Pakistan chased 88, and won by seven wickets inside four days to condemn South Africa to their eighth consecutive loss in Tests in Asia. They have now gone 13 Tests without winning in the subcontinent. For that to change, they will have to bat better when the second Test starts in Rawalpindi on Thursday.

Markram is a long way from home and far out of his comfort zone. But there is a connection to be made between the dots of batting in such disparate places. “Conditions-wise, naturally it’s extremely different,” he said. “But on the mental side of things, there are times in South Africa, in seamer-friendly conditions, where you have to be brave and try something different. Or something is new to you and you have to try it out. Maybe it’s the same in these conditions. Maybe that adaptability — having plans in place to, if needs be, chop and change between them.

“It’s important that we don’t make the same mistakes as in other series. From a personal perspective, the thing that helped me was spending time in the middle and eventually feeling like I could find a way to score.”

Asia isn’t Africa. Africa isn’t Asia. But, at some level, batting is batting, wherever you are.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Fawad puts Pakistan in front

“I’ve never blamed anyone because I’ve always believed you get what fate has in store for you. I don’t think about 10 years going to waste.” – Fawad Alam on not being picked for almost 11 years.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

IT’S on days like Wednesday that everybody in cricket earns their keep. From batters to bowlers to fielders, to wicketkeepers, captains and coaches, to umpires and scorers, groundskeepers, spectators and broadcasters. Yes, even writers. It’s what transpires on days when important things do happen, but slowly and incrementally with no single instant changing the narrative enough to proclaim it as definitive.

Coming after Tuesday, when 14 wickets fell, Wednesday was the opposite of a shock to the system. Like drinking a cup of lukewarm tea after stepping out of a cold shower. A pitch that had turned square and offered inconsistent bounce the day before did nothing. A suggestion of reverse swing was never confirmed. And all the while Pakistan were content to grind their way towards the lead, which they took ownership of in the 12th over after tea. As well they might have in the wake of losing four wickets in the 18 overs they faced before the close on Tuesday.

First a resolute Azhar Ali took on the responsibility of finding a way through the fire, batting in four partnerships and for more than three-and-a-half hours for his 51 before, after lunch, committing a rare error — cutting too close at Keshav Maharaj — and being caught behind. Then Fawad Alam, Azhar’s partner in a stand of 94 that started on Tuesday, took over.

Fetching his front foot from across Pakistan’s western border with Iran, splashing his back foot into the Indus River to the east, then somehow putting his feet on the same longitude — and all as the bowler is thundering towards him — the wiry, forebodingly bearded and moustachioed left-hander makes a striking sight. The South Africans saw more than enough of him in the six hours he spent on his 109. Fawad’s innings started in the rubble of Tuesday’s teetering ruins, when Pakistan were 27/4. It endured until the 11th over before stumps on Wednesday, when he bunted uppishly to Lungi Ngidi and was caught at midwicket. Younis Khan, now Pakistan’s batting coach, was the first to offer his congratulations when Fawad returned to the dressingroom.

That Fawad was unperturbed after edging Maharaj onto Dean Elgar’s boot at slip when he was 35 was unsurprising. That he got up and got on with it after being dealt a fearful blow on the wrist by Lungi Ngidi shortly after tea was expected. That he reached his century with a six launched over long-on off Maharaj was an outrage of the most inspiring kind. He was the rock in partnerships of 55 with Mohammad Rizwan and 102 with Faheem Ashraf, who made a sturdy 64.

If you’re in the kind of trouble Pakistan were in when Fawad took guard, who else would you want at the crease? Bizarrely, on the strength of this performance, Pakistan preferred others for almost 11 years — from November 2009 to August 2020 — while he was overlooked. Impressively, he garnished his glory with grace, telling an online press conference: “I’ve never blamed anyone because I’ve always believed you get what fate has in store for you. I don’t think about 10 years going to waste.” Fawad earned his keep, and more.

Less so Quinton de Kock. South Africa’s captain wasted all three of his team’s referrals on leg-before decisions that the on-field umpires clearly made correctly in the first. He also spilled the catch, off Kagiso Rabada, that would have seen Faheem dismissed for 21 and the stand snuffed out at 52. On De Kock’s shoulders, too, rests the decision to hand the second new ball, taken in the fourth over after it was due, to Maharaj. That was at least defendable. But not Aiden Markram, a part-time off-spinner, being introduced after Rabada and Anrich Nortjé had had only four overs from the other end — one of which gleaned the chance De Kock squandered. That Fawad and Faheem are both left-handers, and thus Markram would have had a chance of troubling them, would have been a better argument if Markram had bowled more than 182 balls in his 22 Tests before this match. De Kock’s field placings were too puzzling too often. The blame for all that isn’t his entirely. He is in only his third Test as captain and he should have been better advised — and convinced, if required — by the able leadership lieutenants he has in Faf du Plessis and Elgar. But the buck stops with De Kock. It eluded him on Wednesday. His frustration got the better of him when he had words with Hasan Ali after Maharaj had bowled Pakistan’s No. 9 with what turned out to be a no-ball. If nothing untoward was said, that’s a good sign that De Kock remains in the fight. He cares a lot. Sometimes too much.

Three wickets before and after tea — Fawad’s and Faheem’s among them — gave the South Africans hope that Thursday’s narrative might turn the match back in their favour. Pakistan have a lead of 88, which is worth at least as twice as much in the context of the match.

“We’re in a very good situation right now,” Fawad said. “If we make 30 or 40 more runs we have a very good chance of gaining the upper hand because the pitch is very slow and turning. If we get a lead of 150 we have a very good chance to win this Test match.”

That was true, but so was Maharaj’s view: “Pakistan have a bit of lead so I’ll probably give [the advantage] to them a bit more. Having said that, I don’t think we’re too far behind simply because we controlled the rate — we didn’t let the scoring get out of hand.”

If the pitch remains as sound as it was on Wednesday for most of Thursday’s play, there will be plenty of runs in it. And plenty of cricket left in the contest.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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