Waqar inspires Pakistan's title victory
VIKRANT GUPTA

SHARJAH, MARCH 31: The countdown on the gigantic screen at the Sharjah Stadium had begun. Ninety-three runs off 76 balls; seventy-five off 66; sixty-six off 60 -- the nail-biting 25,000 strong crowd was hooked. Pakistani speedster Shoaib Akhtar, cooling his heels in the players enclosure could take it no more. He stood up and walked to the makeshift TV production control room, preferring to watch the game away from the tense dressing room atmosphere.

The first ball Akhtar watched on the TV, brought the much-needed luck to his side as Nicky Boje fell to Waqar Younis' pace. That didn't relieve tension as the man walking in next for South Africa, Lance `The Executioner' Klusener, has quite a reputation for winning matches from such positions. With Waqar running in to bowl the next delivery, Akhtar blinked. But, the deafening noise from the stands told him the Pakistanis were celebrating. The stumps lay shattered and Waqar was on the top of the world. Klusener was conquered and that was good enough for Akhtar to rejoin his teammates and an equally tense coach Javed Miandad in the dressing room.

Minutes later there was commotion everywhere -- in the stands, the dressing room and on the field as the Pakistanis were looking for souveniers after pipping South Africa in the tri-series Coca Cola Cup day-night final tonight.

In a game beffiting the title clash, South Africa fell 16 runs short of the 264-run target set by the Pakistanis. The humdinger was won and lost so many times by the two teams that one lost count of it. But Waqar's double-strike was the final nail in the South African coffin.

For Waqar, it was a day of personal triumph too. With some dew on the outfield and moisture in the air, Waqar bowled straight and quick. That he is the master of late reverse swing only made the South African batsmen's life more difficult. He followed up the dismissals of Boje and Klusener with those of Shaun Pollock and the dangerous Mark Boucher, both clean bowled, to finish with figures of 4 for 62.

For the coach-skipper duo of Miandad and Moin Khan, it was doubly sweet as the win was achieved without Akhtar, Pakistan's hero of their last-match win over the same rivals. But as a proud Akhtar said later, it didn't matter as a charged-up "Waqar bhai was simply unplayable".

The win spoke of Pakistan's ability to perform under pressure. Only a few days ago, nobody -- not even the most vocal of Pakistani supporter -- would have put his money on the team which was being beaten just about everywhere. The team was disjointed, but those who remember how Pakistan won the 1992-93 World Cup in Australia, need not be reminded of their "can-do" spirit. They were well-served by the youngsters in the team -- Imran Nazir, Shahid Afridi, Yousuf Youhana, Abdur Razzaq -- while the experience of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Inzamam-ul-Haq kept them together.

For the South African skipper Hansie Cronje, it must have been quite depressing to see his team losing the `big match' once again, more so after the typically-blistering knock he played. In the end though, it was the failure of his bowlers to keep the Pakistanis in check in the morning which led to their downfall.

Earlier, the afternoon was lit up by the dazzling strokeplay of young Nazir and not-so-young Shahid Afridi. That, plus Inzamam's steady hand propped up the team's tally. Till four overs into the Pakistan innings, with the board showing just five runs, the crowd was still probing into what led to Akhtar's volte-face from yesterday's "I-will-play' statement. Akhtar was forgotten, once the two openers Nazir and Afridi got into the act. Once the first firm stroke from Nazir off Shaun Pollock raced to the boundary, the batsmen realised the wicket was a beauty to bat on and the South Africans were an easy meat thereon.

Pakistan's batsman have been facing the flak for long now. There have been bouts of individual brilliance but the team's tally never shot up. Maybe, the extraordinary win over South Africa on Tuesday night did the trick. Just yesterday, Miandad had said: "Though the batsmen haven't done very well till now, I hope they come good in the final. If they put runs on the board, our world-class bowlers won't allow anybody to get even close to the target."

Miandad's wish came good in the afternoon and he was smiling all through the cup presentation in the night.

SCOREBOARD :

PAKISTAN
Imran Nazir st Boucher b Crookes (89b, 7x4, 2x6) 69
Shahid Afridi c Kallis b Klusener (47b, 5x4, 1x6) 52
Younis Khan lbw Klusener (13b) 4
Inzamam-ul-Haq b Pollock (82b, 3x4) 53
Yousuf Youhana c Cronje b Kallis (44b, 2x) 26
Moin Khan lbw Kallis (2b) 2
Abdur Razzaq not out (23b, 3x4) 28
Wasim Akram not out (3b) 5
Extras (w10, lb10, nb4) 24
Total (for six wickets in 50 overs) 263
Fall of wickets: 1-123 (Afridi), 2-135 (Nazir), 3-139 (Younis), 4-204 (Youhana), 5-209 (Moin), 6-256 (Inzamam)
Bowling: Shaun Pollock 10-1-54-1, Mornantau Hayward 9-0-52-0, Jacques Kallis 10-0-57-2, Lance Klusener 10-1-27-2, Steve Elworthy 3-0-21-0, Derek Crookes 5-0-20-1, Hansie Cronje 3-0-22-0

SOUTH AFRICA
Herschelle Gibbs c Inzamam b W Akram (13b, 1x4) 5
Neil McKenzie c M Akram b Arshad (106b, 3x4) 58
Jacques Kallis c Moin b M Akram (15b, 2x4) 11
Hansie Cronje c Younis b Arshad (73b, 6x4, 3x6) 79
Derek Crookes c Younis b Arshad (6b) 1
Mark Boucher b Waqar (49b, 3x4, 2x6) 57
Nicky Boje c Moin b Waqar (1b) 0
Lance Klusener b Waqar (1b) 0
Shaun Pollock b Waqar (16b, 1x4) 14
Steve Elworthy not out (10b) 5
Mornantau Hayward b Razzaq (6b) 4
Extras (w4, nb3, lb6) 13
Total (allout in 49 overs) 247
Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Gibbs), 2-30 (Kallis), 3-135 (Cronje), 4-137 (Crookes), 5-198 (McKenzie), 6-199 (Boje), 7-199 (Waqar), 8-224 (Pollock), 9-239 (Boucher)
Bowling: Wasim Akram 9-2-23-1, Waqar Younis 10-0-62-4, Mohammad Akram 9-0-42-1, Abdur Razzaq 9-0-33-1, Shahid Afridi 4-0-30-0, Arshad Khan 8-0-51-3

Result: Pakistan won by 16 runs
Man of the Match: Waqar Younis
Man of the series: Waqar Younis.