When Afridi slaughtered Harbhajan(and his side)

(Most people sacrifice animals on three days of Eid.But some reserve the slaughter act for the 4th day-Shahid Afridi is one of them)

The reception was familiar,crowd greeted with a huge roar,the ring master’s entry..whose show they have come in numbers to watch..hands clapping,tongues chanting,hearts throbbing..waiting for the Khyber Rifle to unleash its ferocious scuds with tremendous BOOMS,to further pummel an already demoralised Indian attack.

And the beginning was really inauspicious, the master blaster started off by taking singles,followed by loud and prolonged boos  and to make matters worse, he ran out his best friend and the well set younis khan,on 199.

Crowd went silent.Younis didnt raise his head,didnt utter a word, just trugded off the the field dejectedly and the expression on his face said it all, not to speak of the expression on a speechless shaoaib akhtar in the dressing room..a commentator had the audacity of proclaiming an indian revival..maybe his voice was carried over down to the field of play and managed to enter the ears of the Khyber Rifle..as if he was waiting for a provocation like this, to open up, burst into a ball of flame and unleash his fecrocity over the hapless indians, to set lahore ablaze and light up millions of TV screens ,sending billions into an aura of admiration and fascination.

It was a watershed moment in the game. Because after that, all  hell broke loose,  floodgates of sixes and fours opened up..and for next hour or so, it was all raining sixes and fours and that rain tuned into a deluge in that harbhajan singh over, which not only ended harbhajan’s day’s work but also sunk india into a pacific of doom.

Pakistan amassed a staggering 110 runs, in just 60 balls, and for a few minutes everybody forgot it was a TEST match not some festival game going on.

Through his belligerent,aggresive,majestic,intimidating yet trademark show of firepower, Afridi not only batted India out of the game, but also set the perfect tone for the rest of the series.

How will the former turbanator will overcome this whipping?

How will kumble reconcile himself to the fact that he went for plenty?

How will the previously high flying,now shot down pathan be
able to muster up enough steam to get airborne again?

whether agarkar be able to bowl again in the series?

will the knee cap of yuvi will ever be in the same position again?

these are the questions which pakistanis asked from the indians and i dare say,over the course of next month ro so,indians wont be doing little except finding answers to these riddles..not to mentionthat today’s show was only the tip of the ice berg.

Salman missed out, Malik faltered softly,Inzi was lazy..what if all 3 of them also get their act toghether at faisalabad?

afridi may have sacrificed some animals on one of the previous three days..but he reserved his personal butcher’s skills for today..he sluaghtered the indians with such neatness and dexterity that even the most skillful of butchers would be proud of him today

Like a knife through butter, a bullet through a frail human flesh,clean as a whistle, he made Pakistan out run the indians at a pace,which cant even be emulated by Micheal Johnson.
 

It was the Afridi circus, the crowd wanted to see..

It was the display of fireworks every fan wants to witness..

It was a unique talent at its majestic and flowing best..

It was an artist at work, only that he was an artist expert at slaughtering bowlers, and the colours of carnage he imprinted with a forceful stick, on the walls of gaddafiand ofcourse in the hearts of his fans and on minds of the opposition,will not fade away for a long long time to come.