Rizwan plays patience game as Pak thump Hong Kong huge margin

Restlessness crept into the stands, as Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Rizwan laboured on in the middle overs. The crowd, sitting just 60 yards from the batsmen, began to belt out: “We want sixes, we want sixes.” Nudged singles and stolen twos were not the brand of cricket they had braved the relentless sun and stifling heat to see, though the wicket was on the lower and slower side, where batsmen struggled to hit through the line or on the up.
Then, as though lening to their prayers, sensing the vibe, Rizwan unshackled. The shackling, though, was not self-inflicted. He was wading through a phase wherein he looked not so much out of runs as out of touch. He was struggling for fluency. He could not middle the strokes that he usually middles — the sweeps, the cuts, the hits down the ground, to the extent that it seemed to irritate both himself and the crowd. “Rizwan bhai, thoda aur jor ze mar lo (hit a bit harder).” Then Rizwan is sort of a guy who fights through his bad times, who pulls himself out from the deepest of ass.

7️⃣7️⃣ runs in the last five overs 💥
Death overs surge takes Pakan to 193-2 👏 #AsiaCup2022 | #PAKvHK pic.twitter.com/s048IEQwoK
— Pakan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) September 2, 2022
But even he seemed to get bored of the labours when he stepped out and creamed leg-spinner Mohammad Ghazanfar over long-on. He was dissatisfied with the shot. He had not timed it as sweetly as he wanted, the bat shook in his hands at the point of contact, and on a larger ground he could have ended up in the long-on fielder’s grasp. But Rizwan knew he could not afford to just stick around in one-day mode —before the six, he was batting on a run-a-ball 32.
Not just that the team needed impetus, Zaman too was biding his time, but he had copped criticism for his sedate knock against India as well (43 off 42). In the only other T20 International he had played this year, he scored only 23 off 19 balls. Perhaps, he was so low on T20 batting exposure this year that he wanted a few games to get reacquainted with the riffs of the game. The wicket too was difficult for carefree stroke-play. Concurred Zaman in the innings break chat to the host broadcasters: “We played according to the wicket. The plan was to keep wickets in hand in the first 10, and then hit in the last 10. That worked for us. There was a lot of heat and sweat as usual in the UAE. If you have wickets at the end here, you can put up a good score – like we did today.”

Change of gear
But once he struck the six, though not from the middle of the bat, his confidence swelled. The old Rizwan, of alley-cat stealth and surgeon-like precision touch and deflection, resurfaced. An over later, he crashed Ghanzafar’s wrong’un through point. This time, though, he was happy with the shot and grinned back at Zaman. The ball was not too short and was breaking into him, but he shifted deep into the crease, picked the ball from almost his off-stump and thumped it with a furious twirl of the wrs.

He continued to be ruthless on the spinners — left-arm spinner Yasim Murtaza was brutally swept through deep mid-wicket, one of his staple strokes but one he has been struggling to time until that moment. Zaman too picked on from his slowish start with a six apiece of Murtaza and Ghanzafar. He eventually perished for 53 off  41 balls, the strike rate from less than run-a-ball at one stage settling on 129. Rizwan remained unbeaten on 78 off 57 balls, the last 42 runs blasted off 25 in what would be a significant shot in the arm for Pakan in their title bid as well as the Sunday encounter against India. Like Babar Azam is to his team in Tests and 50-over cricket, Rizwan is to their T20 fortunes. He is the tempo-setter as well as the heartbeat of this team, his batting a blend of old-world smarts and new-age pyrotechnics. Pakan desperately wanted him to rekindle his usual form, and he seems to have granted their wish.
The target — 194 — was too steep for Hong Kong, more so against as quality an attack as Pakan’s. The pace of Naseem Shah — he betrayed no signs of discomfort from the injury he sustained against India — and Shahnawaz Dahani — was irresible. the end of the Powerplay itself, Hong Kong had lost four wickets. Then came spinners Mohammad Nawaz and Shadab Khan to wrap them up for a meagre 38, helping themselves to three and four wicket hauls respectively. The restlessness of the Pakan crowd seemed redundant, for Hong Kong fell short of Rizwan’s tally alone more than half. Nonetheless, the night ended as they wanted to end, with a thumping Pakan victory.