14 The Independent . the Diaspora ’ s Multicultural Voice September 30 2017
Sports
What Younis said to Yasir in Dominica
" Jeet toh jaaienge magar tum log marwaaoge mujhe ( We ' ll win it , but you guys will kill me )."
So said , according to Yasir Shah , Misbah-ul- Haq after tea on the final day of the third Test between West Indies and Pakistan in Dominica earlier this year . Misbah couldn ' t have known then how close his team would cut it , granting him the first half of his prediction , but in the process nearly ensuring the second .
Imagine Misbah ' s tension through that final session . West Indies were stubbornly refusing to give in to the dream ending he and his team had craved , a first series win in the Caribbean in Misbah and Younis Khan ' s last Test . The hosts were 146 for 6 at tea , the 304-run target not a real one but the draw definitely on .
Eventually , as we all know now , Pakistan scraped through , winning the Test with six balls to spare - in context , one of the most dramatic finishes in Pakistan ' s history .
And we ' re familiar now with the defining images of that denouement . Yasir switching to over the wicket , to Shannon Gabriel , until then a heroic and unexpected resister ; bowling outside off ; Gabriel attempting an ungainly hoick across the line for no reason comprehensible to mankind , only to inside-edge on to his stumps ; Yasir off on his football-dive celebration , the team in pursuit , Misbah on one knee with the fist pump .
And , of course , before that ball , Younis gesturing to Yasir at first slip , the exiting legend with one final , decisive input , proof even when it wasn ' t needed , of his leaderly value . What exactly did he say to Yasir ? " He told me to bowl the slider to him ," Yasir said . " I said to Younis bhai that I want to bowl the googly because it ' s the last ball [ of the over ] he ' ll be ready for the slider .
" When I got to my mark , Younis said in Urdu to bowl it a little outside off stump . When I got there , I paused and thought about it and felt my googly isn ' t great so I ' ll go with a slider instead . So I bowled it and he took a shot …"
Pakistan did have another over left , so it wasn ' t , technically , the last chance . But given how embedded the centurion Roston Chase was at the other end - he was unbeaten on 101 from 239 balls - and that he would not face the main threat of Yasir , it was then or never .
Had it not been for his insistence , or Misbah ' s faith in him , Yasir may not have been bowling that over at all . He had already bowled five overs with the second new ball . Misbah , Sarfraz Ahmed and some others held pre-over discussions . Somebody suggested getting a fast bowler on : a yorker , a bouncer , anything .
" But I told Misbah I want to do it , I will get you this wicket ," Yasir said . " I asked for it . Misbah said , ' Okay , come , no masla [ no problem ]. Do it .' It was a new ball and a tailender was standing . Misbah said , ' I have trust in you , you ' ve always got me wickets .'"
For the first five balls , Yasir , 24 wickets already in the series , attacked leg stump . The first was too full , the second , which spun big but slow , too short . Third ball he went round and brought all his fielders in . It was too full , too legside and Gabriel safely padded it away .
" It was breaking from leg stump . If I turned it from there , I could get a bowled , even slip was a chance ."
Fourth ball , drama . Gabriel went pad first , bat
Yasir Shah celebrates the final wicket of the West Indies innings with his team-mates
hidden behind and , in a blur , the ball popped up to silly point . Gone , said the umpire , off went the players in celebration . But Gabriel reviewed and , after an unbearable , interminable delay , was reprieved . Fate was doing Pakistan in . In the first over of the new ball , Chase had been dismissed off a no-ball . A few overs later Gabriel was given not out when replays hinted an edge that couldn ' t be confirmed in the absence of HotSpot and Snicko . And now this .
" It just wasn ' t happening ," Yasir said . " It wasn ' t pressure , but I think we were just focusing on every single ball so intently , so much , to get them out to make this a happy ending ."
Gabriel played the fifth ball , from leg stump again , with the confidence and relief of a man who has been told he ' s off death row .
" All I could think of was that this was the over for it , this was the over to get the wicket ," said the man behind the stumps , Sarfraz Ahmed . " This was our chance . But as each ball was bowled I was like this is slipping out of our hands , we ' ve lost this ."
And then Younis ' intervention . Sarfraz doesn ' t remember seeing or hearing him at the time , so focused and despondent was he . He saw it later on screen . " I think that is what Younis was saying to throw it outside , so that when it pitches outside , it will skid and come back in a little . The flipper , a new ball , if you pitch it outside , it didn ' t go as far maybe as we wanted , but from where it landed it came in a little ."
As enduring an image , or rather sound , is of the great Fazeer Mohammad , just the man for the occasion , from behind our TV screens . " Got ' em ! Why did he do that ? Unbelievable …"
Why , indeed , Gabriel ? There resides the real mystery . " He must have earned a lot of blessings from a lot of people that day because he won us the series ," said Sarfraz , as clueless as the rest of us , but unconcerned .