It was said that at his peak, AB de Villiers could play any type of innings which suited the team’s requirements. Just for the sake of evidence, he showed that he could do so by scoring the fastest ODI hundred against West Indies at the start of 2015 and later in the same year made a 297-ball 43 against India in Delhi while trying to save the game for his side.
On Saturday another batter showed a similar trait, albeit in a different way. Fakhar Zaman is no De Villiers. Not even close. But during Pakistan’s pursuit of 402 runs in 50 overs in a must-win clash against New Zealand, the southpaw showed two different sides to his batting.
During the initial overs against the pace of Trent Boult and Tim Southee, he stood at the crease with an open stance and mainly slogged everything in an arc between long-off and deep square leg.
Sixes flew off his bat to different stands of the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, including one off Boult that went on the top tier and another off Southee which was hit with one hand. It was batting equivalent to that of a pinch hitter and one which Pakistan needed at that stage of the innings.
Kane Williamson had seen enough of the onslaught against the pace by then and introduced spin in the eighth over. Mitchell Santner was brought on a move that in some way was a favourable match-up for Zaman.
The southpaw resisted the temptation of going after him, but it wasn’t long before the spinners also were meted out the same treatment as the pacers.
Williamson then went to Glenn Phillips and this was a match-up that favoured the Kiwis more than Pakistan, but, as the crowd and those watching at home found out, Zaman had other ideas in mind.
The left-hander went after Phillips but unlike against the quicks, his striking against spin was clean and orthodox. He chose to go straighter most of the time and it worked for him and his side. Perhaps, it gave Williamson more headaches.
Watching Zaman go after Phillips, one just could not decipher the contrasting style of play of both types of bowlers. It was almost as if viewers were watching two different batters against pace and spin.
The effectiveness was the same, though. New Zealand were left scratching their heads as to what had just hit them. The rains arrived and Zaman’s sixes to different parts of the ground had done its job. He got to his hundred in 63 balls and finished with 11 sixes to his name, and ensured with his belligerence that Pakistan stayed ahead of the DLS par score and eventually won the game to stay in contention for a semifinal spot.
This is not the first time though that Zaman’s inclusion and his impact had lifted Pakistan’s spirits. Six years ago, facing a similar rut at the top, the left-hander was brought in to replace Ahmed Shehzad during the 2017 Champions Trophy.
The inclusion worked first during the semifinal against England where his 58-ball 57 negated the bowling attack and helped Pakistan chase down the target of 215 runs.
And then a game later, he gave India and their fans a memory they wish to erase every single day from their minds, by smashing a 106-ball 114 in the final to pave the way for a memorable title win.
The six hitting exhibition from Zaman on Saturday, especially against spin, was similar to what we saw at The Oval on that day in June and with one game to go for the Men in Green, Babar Azam and co. will hope for a similar showing with the bat when they play England at Kolkata at the end of this week.
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