Twenty20

Oh my god, the T20 world cup! This has to be the strangest series of cricket ever! How did England get beaten by Holland? How did the Australian team not make the super eight? But the biggest surprise - the Pakistan team, woo woo! England beat Pakistan (fine as I was supporting both teams, lol), Pakistan beat Holland (ok) and then got beaten by Sri Lanka (which was expected). However this marked the turnaround point – Pakistan then went onto to beat New Zealand (slightly surprised), Ireland (not so surprised) and then South Africa (shocker!). The team that were unbeaten so far in the series crumbled against Pakistan? I am gob smacked. So Pakistan makes it through to the finals and who are they facing? Only Sri Lanka! This was torture, to be so close to winning only to lose again, argh!

My dad really got into a celebratory mood after each match, which was cool as it was a chance for him to just chill out and enjoy the summer, stress free. Before the match had started, Dad said “You know Saims, even if Sri Lanka do win it doesn’t matter cos Pakistan have played really well so far. And you know it’ll be like our way of saying sorry.” Me: “Sorry for what Dad?” Dad: “You know for when the Sri Lankan team got attacked in Pakistan.” I get what he was trying to say but it was like he was expected Pakistan to lose… as did I but for totally different reasons.

10 minutes into the match, Dad abandoned our TV and rushed over to Tyagee’s to watch it with him, lol. Watching the Sri Lankan team bat first was agony as I was praying for them to make the least runs possible. But fair do’s to Sangakkara and Matthews for making a decent number of runs and also to Jayasuriya and Silva until they were bowled out by Razzaq and Gul respectively. Lucky break for Pakistan when one of the best players on the Sri Lankan team; Dilshan got bowled out very early on in the game. Then came Pakistan’s turn to bat and how excellent was their game? Afridi made the most number of runs and was deservedly man of the match. Pakistan ACTUALLY won something!

I rang dad after the match and was greeted by a cheerful voice that congratulated me on winning the twenty20 cricket. And yes it was my dad that answered the phone, lol. We spent the rest of the evening at Saeed mamoo’s house, as Saba and mamoo had just returned from their trip to Pakistan. After initial talk of the cricket, we spent the rest of the evening (and night) catching up with news and the family events of this past month. Pleased to see everyone together again :)