Pakistan defeat Afghanistan as ‘The Imad Wasim Show’ gets global premiere

KARACHI: At the press conference following Pakistan’s thrilling victory against Afghanistan in Leeds on Saturday, the first question asked of man of the match Imad Wasim was: “Were you nervous when you walked out to bat, that the game might be beyond you?”
Imad initially looked to his right, above the people assembled in front of him. Then his eyes circled back to the reporter as his mouth slowly curled into a smile of bemusement that such a question was even being asked.
“Nah,” Imad said, shrugging. “It wasn’t like that.”
This was (yet another) must-win game for Pakistan in a World Cup where they have survived so far by the skin of their teeth. After having scored 227-9, underdogs Afghanistan had Pakistan struggling as the team in green collapsed to 156-6. But in a breathtaking finish, the Afghans were denied victory by a combination of poor tactical choices and a stellar performance from Imad Wasim.
On a dry pitch, Afghanistan had thrived off a sensational assault by Asghar Afghan and a lot of commitment to discipline by the rest of the team to play out their 50 overs and post what felt like a slightly below-par total. But their phalanx of spinners bowled beautifully, slowly strangling Pakistan’s runs and then feasting on wickets as the pressure told. When Imad Wasim walked in, his side needed 86 more runs, had lost half their wickets, and would soon lose their captain and last batter.
Pressure? Naah, it wasn’t like that.
For the record, Imad had never hit more than 16 runs in a winning chase in his ODI career, and yet there have been acclaimed directors unveiling their masterpieces at Cannes who have displayed far less smoldering insouciance than Imad did here when he dismissed the notion of pressure with such casual disdain. How does that work? Well you see, in certain ways, Imad Wasim has always been the star of the show; it was just that for much of the cricket world, that show had never premiered.
Even before he had made his international debut, Imad was known within local cricket circles as someone with a lot of potential and attitude. Since playing for Pakistan, he has always maintained the stylings of the global sleazeball aesthetics: faded hair and trimmed beard. He briefly experimented with alice bands for his hair, and has often bowled in wrap-around sunglasses with lenses that reflect back in a spectrum of loud colors.
Like fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar before him, he lacks a certain self-consciousness many Pakistani cricketers display in front of foreign players, and he can often be seen chatting playfully with, or even forcefully sledging, rivals. In the last couple of years, he had started copying the celebration style of one of the world’s most famous footballers, Cristiano Ronaldo. In short, Imad looked and acted like a superstar. The only problem was that he really wasn’t one.
As a bowler, Pakistan had a very effective tactic of using him as a defensive option at the start of the innings, to slow down potential run rampages from the batting side. This has meant that he hasn’t picked up a lot of wickets. In 49 innings, he’s only picked up more than two wickets three times, against Ireland, Zimbabwe and England. Like the performance against England, several of his best performances came in losses, especially with the bat. His batting has often underwhelmed, and until November last year, he had never crossed 29 runs while chasing, and his best efforts had come against weaker sides.
But the thing was, Imad had been quietly turning around his batting. Over the last twelve months, he had scored several valiant yet impressive scores of 40+ against New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. His batting average had shot up, and his strike-rate was at a point it had never really been before in his international career.
Most of Imad’s national team peers had made their name on the global stage during the Champions Trophy, with the likes of Hassan Ali, Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Amir delivering iconic moments. Babar Azam had made his mark on this very tournament after a quieter Champions Trophy. But Imad’s moment had never arrived. Until now.
Much like Babar’s hundred in the previous match, this was one of the all-time best World Cup performances from a batter in Imad’s position for Pakistan. At first, the irrepressible Afghan spinners made Imad’s innings look like a homage to Alicia Silverstone’s greatest film, Clueless. But like Silverstone in that film, Imad effected a dramatic turnaround in the final third. In the 46th over, Afghanistan’s captain, the fast bowler Gulbuddin Naib, took a major gamble in bringing himself on instead of going with a spinner, and Imad knew his moment had arrived. He plundered 18 runs off that over, effectively swinging the momentum toward his side for good.
For the Afghans, this was the most heartbreaking of what have now been three matches where they could have picked up their maiden World Cup win. The fact that they came so close against a rival they have such a fraught social and political relationship with made it much worse for their supporters. Indeed, not only would it have been a great win, it would have effectively ended Pakistan’s World Cup campaign. The team in green should have been going home, except of course, The Imad Wasim Show finally had its global premiere and Pakistan lived to fight another day.

Pakistan defeat Afghanistan as ‘The Imad Wasim Show’ gets global premiere