It’s gone from T to T+2 to T+3, which too is now subject to Karachi’s water-pumping capacity. Well, try harder, if there’s one thing Pakistan has in abundance ever since they lost their ‘home’, it’s patience, and three days when seen against the 3901-day wait is precisely 0.076 percent longer. That’s how insignificant Friday’s (September 27) deluge was.
But the deluge, as a deluge, was bad. Three days of unusual rains in the season, constant pouring had left the National Stadium in water. The outfield appeared as a pool, the drainage jammed and the groundsmen didn’t have any modern equipment and they couldn’t even clean up after it stopped raining. So much so that the officials called it off with almost four hours to go to compress in a 20-over contest.
So nothing’s varied in phases of the development. It’s still a new start for Pakistan, getting into the Misbah-Sarfaraz period, who’ve been quite stable in their selection, facing a Sri Lankan side, who until a week ago would’ve moved off as Sri Lanka A.
Pakistan is reasonably expected to command. Their strategy with the bat, especially in ODIs, under Waqar Younis and Mickey Arthur has been rather complicated between attack and care, often going nowhere. With the chargeback to Misbah-ul-Haq, who made the UAE a stronghold with this very messy approach, it’ll be fascinating to see how the squad works with cricket at home back to being a likelihood.
Again, just to repeat, nobody’s going to cherish this result. It’s all about the information it sends out.
