The over of the year

The first ball was fast and full.

If you have never seen Wasim Akram bowl, this delivery would serve nicely as a taste of Wasim’s viciousness. Mid-air, what happened to the ball wasn’t a change in trajectory. The magical curve towards the off-stump and the rapid dip were what Mohammad Amir had always intended as the ball’s destiny.

Rohit Sharma probably sees things in slow motion. He was on to Amir’s deception. But even he was slow on this ball as it speared into his toes. Rohit jabbed his bat down in a hurry but failed to connect. A most confident appeal for LBW from Amir followed. But it failed to sway umpire Ruchira Palliyaguruge.

Amir was at his wit’s ends. Shahid Afridi got in Palliyaguruge’s face. What was the ball missing, Afridi wanted to know. Nothing, the replay showed. Maybe Rohit’s front-foot was a moonbeam outside the line. A lucky escape.

In 2010, Wasim – possibly the greatest exponent of left arm bowling, and the man we keep comparing Amir to – commented that even he wasn’t as good as Amir at 18. Amir was crushing Australia and England at that time, running in like the wind, swinging the ball both ways at high speeds. Only days after Wasim’s observation, Amir was caught spot-fixing a Test match. He spent the next five years exiled from international cricket. His comeback has made many sore, most notably some of Pakistan’s current players. Amir is in need of redemption. All eyes are on him.

Just like Wasim on the prowl, Amir wasn’t about to let the pressure up on Rohit. He would continue to attack India relentlessly today.

Amir repeated the trick with the second ball. It was full and curved in nicely in line with the stumps. Rohit was hit on the knee in front of middle. Pakistan’s appeal was louder than the first one. Rohit should have walked on this one.

Palliyaguruge, a former cricketer with nearly two decades of domestic cricket in Sri Lanka, seemed unmoved again. Was he asleep? Did he not see what just happened? That was plumb. Is Rohit about this to survive this? Does Palliyaguruge not realise what this wicket could mean to Amir? He's giving it his all in a game against the arch rivals.

The Sri Lankan umpire suddenly awoke from his trance and shot his finger up. Amir’s celebration was primal. If you were anywhere near him in that moment, you’d have had a sunburn.

And the over had just begun.

In came Virat Kohli. Amir bowled him a wide one and Kohli got a thick edge to third man. Why didn’t Afridi have a gully? One run.

Ajinkya Rahane, who was opening in Shikhar Dhawan’s place, was in bad need of a big score. And Amir wasn’t going to let him get one.

Amir bowled him the only bad ball of this over: a wide down the leg-side. But was it a ploy to lull Rahane? If it was, it worked.

Amir bowled his specialty again: fast, full, and angling across. Rahane would surely have been awake to the deception. Yet he could do nothing as the ball curved into his pads. He just wasn't quick enough. This time, Palliyaguruge raised his finger willingly.

Pakistan, with just 83 to defend, had knocked out both the Indian openers for ducks, and the first over still had two balls left. The closest parallel to what Amir had just done was Wasim knocking over Sadagoppan Ramesh and Rahul Dravid in the opening over of the Coca Cola Cup final and then failing to get Mohammad Azharuddin LBW for the hat-trick because of a no-ball.

Next: Suresh Raina. He was on a mission to cover the swing and keep the next ball out. So imagine his shock as the next ball rose frightfully, barely avoiding the edge of Raina’s bat as he jumped to cover the bounce. The final ball of the over was easier to deal with: it was moving away from him, but Raina defended it firmly.

In one over, Amir had turned a lost cause on its head. And he would bring Pakistan closer in his second over. Meanwhile on Twitter, the trending tag wasn’t ‘Mohammad Amir’. It was ‘Wasim Akram’.

Amir let Raina have a single, and then set Kohli up brilliantly. The first ball angled away, and Kohli defended it. The second ball angled away but curved back into Kohli's pads. Kohli’s leg play is one of the strongest in the game. But even he didn’t have the reflexes to cover the quickness and lateness of movement. The ball struck him high on the front pad. It looked out. Pakistan appealed. The heat was on Palliyaguruge again. Was he going to get this one right? He deliberated, and to everyone’s surprise, said not out again. Kohli looked amazed by what Amir was doing.

Replays showed the ball clipping the bails. It proved to be a decisive moment in the game. If Pakistan had got the wicket, they would have probably won this game.

Not to mind. Amir ran in again having Raina’s plotted downfall. Raina wasn’t alive to what the seamer was doing. He got an out-swinger next ball and made the error of trying to turn it to the leg-side. All that did was give an easy catch to mid-on. India 8-3 in the third. In came Yuvraj. Not knowing how to treat his first ball, Yuvaraj left it. It swung in late and came tantalisingly close to taking the off-stump with it.

Amir was now bowling one of the great new-ball spells of all time having knocked out three Indians, and coming close to taking two more wickets -- all in the space of two overs. He wasn’t just making fans believe that Pakistan could win this game. Amir was making cricket fans believe in him.

Kohli, having survived that LBW, got on top of Amir soon. Amir bowled a wide that went for four and relieved the pressure. Kohli then hit Amir for two fours in the next over, setting up his match-winning 49. Palliyaguruge gave him out LBW despite a big inside edge, but it was enough to win the game. 

Days before the tournament, Kohli had said he was happy to see Amir back. When Amir went out of the game in 2010, Kohli’s career was just about to take off.

“It’s good to see that he has realised his mistake, learnt from it and rectified himself,” Kohli had said last week. Today, Kohli complimented Amir during the spell. “I would like to compliment Mohammad Amir for the way he bowled,” Kohli said after the game. “I actually congratulated him while he was bowling. It was so happy to play such an amazing spell. He is a world class bowler.”

Kohli and Amir shared a moment during the post-match handshakes. The end of a great contest was acknowledged, as was perhaps the beginning of a great modern rivalry.