Online Reporter
ON Saturday evening, Zimbabwean cricketer Sikandar Raza lunged at one from Shoaib Bashir in Trent Bridge and got out. While the rest of his team-mates reflected on the result following an innings defeat in their one-off Test cricket against England, Raza’s journey — quite literally — had only just begun.
In less than 24 hours, his PSL franchise Lahore Qalandars would play the league final in Lahore.
Raza’s commitment to Qalandars this year has not been in question; a week earlier, he flew in from England to help secure their place in the knockouts, before flying back the following day to rejoin his national side for Zimbabwe’s first Test in England in over two decades.
Now that the Test was over, Qalandars began to work on a surreal plan.
He jumped into a friend’s car and was driven to Birmingham, the nearest airport, for the speediest flight to Lahore.
With no business-class seats available, he was happy to fly economy to Dubai. A six-hour layover and another change of airport later, he jumped on a flight in Abu Dhabi bound for Lahore; he was still on his way from the airport when Shaheen Afridi announced at the toss that Raza was part of the starting XI.
“I am here to do a job, and god forbid, if we happened to lose the game then at least in my heart I knew I was with my brothers,” Raza said following the game, having hit the winning runs in a tense finish. “I know the team truly wanted me here, given the efforts the owners and the captains went through over the last 24-36 hours to get me here. If I tell you, it’s unbelievable.
“Bowled 25 overs (in the Test) the day before yesterday, batted for 20 overs yesterday. Had dinner in Birmingham, breakfast in Dubai, drove to Abu Dhabi for lunch, took a flight and had dinner in Pakistan. I guess this is the life of a professional cricketer and I’m truly humbled and blessed to have that life.” Two balls into his spell, Raza took the crucial wicket of Rilee Rossouw, but it wouldn’t be until three hours later that it became clear why Qalandars had moved heaven and earth to have him in their side. At no point all game did Qalandars look as out of the game as at the moment Raza came out to bat. Mohammad Amir was bowling a characteristically clutch death-over which had two balls left to run; he had just sent Bhanuka Rajapaksa packing. Qalandars needed 57 off 20, and Amir had another over to go after that one.
Amir dropped the first one short, and Raza got low, smearing it to the midwicket boundary. Beginner’s luck, maybe? Amir went around the wicket to angle a short ball into his body, but Raza’s connection was even cleaner this time, and it flew all the way over that boundary for six more. “I tried to take the emotions out,” he said. “I think all the journey and the Test match helped me because I was so mentally and physically drained. All I was saying to myself was “just watch the ball’. I was blank out there. I wasn’t predicting or thinking where the ball’s going to be and what I’m going to do. All I said was wherever the ball is hit the best shot.” He wouldn’t get much of the strike for the next couple of overs, but Kusal Perera was doing a superb job at the other end. Even so, in the decisive final over, Gladiators had marginally inched ahead once more, and with Raza facing, his side needed a further eight off three.
Faheem Ashraf attempted a wide yorker, and didn’t miss the mark by much. But he was bowling to a man who had spent the previous day somehow doing what needed to be done.
So Raza found a way to get underneath it, generating phenomenal power at the end of his range to scythe it to, and over, cover point for six. — ESPNcricinfo/Sports Reporter.
