Out of all the bowling stardoms against Pakistan, Irfan Pathan still stands out

In today’s batter-dominated world, bowlers still make the ultimate difference in cricket’s fast lane known as the T20. In the recently concluded IPL where batters were in phenomenal nick, it was the bowlers who reshaped the game, finding bylanes around the hard-hitting normal to establish their dominance. Similarly in the latest edition of the T20 World Cup, things have already gone bonkers.

With the likes of New Zealand and Pakistan bowing down to Afghanistan and USA respectively, the bowlers are already leaving an indelible mark on the tournament. Talking about indelible marks from bowlers though, Irfan Pathan’s heroics suddenly sound a sweet ring. Amongst bowlers who impressed heavily against Pakistan, Pathan aces the charts with six wickets to his name in the history of the tournament. However, three of them came against, in the grand finale of the 2007 T20 World Cup finale.

With four wickets down, Pakistan was very carefully treading the steps as Shoaib Malik and Misbah-ul-Haq had their eyes on steadying the ship. This is when MS Dhoni threw the younger Pathan brother into the blender. Second over up and he bowled a shorter one that gripped onto the surface before Shoaib Malik holed out to mid-wicket.

If that the scalp of Shoaib Malik was just a prelude to the imminent frenzy about to unfold, Irfan Pathan made the crowd go bonkers in the following ball as he claimed the massive scalp of Shahid Afridi. Bowling fuller on the off-stump, he invited Afridi to take on the longest boundary. The Pakistani hard-hitter did go for his strike but with a very late wobble that was Pathan’s specialty, he ended up skying his effort and Sreesanth gobbled him up at long-off.

Pathan added another feather to his cap when he claimed Yasir Arafat as the latter went looking for a frenetic swing and his stumps were toast. It was Pathan’s electric performance in the middle overs that set up the win for Team India as he finished with figures of 4-0-16-3.