Pakistan players now. Alphabetically. Coming on one by one to take their fancy white jackets. As if cricket wasn’t a civil enough sport, we have blazers — not jackets! — being disembersed at the presentation. Cricket, you freakishly obsessive about class beauty. Shadab wanted to rush to the stage to collect his, but he’s been pulled back.
Virat Kohli – captain, India: “Indeed (disappointing). Congratulations to Pakistan and their fans. The way they turned things around speaks volumes of the talent they have in their side. They can upset anyone on their day. Disappointing to lose but I have a smile on my face because I am very proud of the boys. To be in the final, you need to have a good tournament, which the boys pulled off. Credit to Pakistan; they outplayed us. We never took anyone lightly. They were more intense and more passionate.
I think, with the ball, we could have had more wicket-taking opportunities. We have always tried to do our best but sometimes, the opposition does play very well. Even with the ball, they were very aggressive. Hardik was outstanding but apart from that, we didn’t show any resistance.
Small margins can be massive in cricket (on the no-ball that Fakhar got out to). We haven’t won the final, have lost a game of cricket, and that’s all. We need to move on and learn from our mistakes. Not at all (if he would have done anything different (in hindsight) at the toss). The pitch was consistent throughout.
Didn’t do anything strange or bad in either innings. We just weren’t good enough on the day. We will take that on the chin and move on.”
Indian players get their medallions. Let’s see what Kohli has to say. There’s some booing I hear, again, but Kohli’s smiling. That’s the way.
When on mic, Hasan Ali closes his arms in, and implodes into a lovable humble crumble, much anti to his wicket-taking celebrations that now rule Twitter.
Hasan Ali is also the Player of the Tournament. “Thankful that we won this ICC final. I wasn’t in the side last year but I relied on hard work and self belief. I have learnt from the beginning that energy and flair is important. A good body leads to good performance. There wasn’t much pressure on me. The tournament was good for me; got the top players out. I hope I continue like this. The final wicket was a very special moment. I don’t have words.” (translated from Urdu/Hindi)
Hasan Ali gets the Golden Ball. Cheers this time, which is the right way. Cheer a champion, always.
Shikhar Dhawan takes the Golden Bat for 338 runs. Do I hear boos? Oh, come on fans.
Fakhar Zaman is the Man of the Match of the final.
Okay, here’s the presentation. Kohli and Yuvraj are seen sharing a laugh with Shoaib Malik and Babar Azam, as Pakistan’s bowling coach, Azhar Mahmood, watches from the sidelines. This is what you want to see but a little more cricketing spice on the field wouldn’t have hurt, would it have?
Azhar Mahmood: He (Hasan Ali) is a young guy and bowls with a big of heart. Every time he runs in, he wants to get a wicket. The attitude is brilliant. He is a match winner for us. Young guy coming into the side (Fakhar Zaman). It is more self belief than physical and technical thing. Fakhar Zaman is a brilliant guy up the order. He puts pressure on the opposition. If there is a guy like him who can go up there get some runs for us, that is just brilliant.
Mickey Arthur: It has been an up and down ride. After the India game, we came back superbly. We knew we were better than that. The whole group came together and kept believing and that was a superb thing. We wanted to be a lot more consistent. It has been a remarkable achievement. We have got a group of young players.
We are on the right track, everything is going right at the moment. I am happy with the brand of cricket we have been playing and want to continue the momentum. We have got two years until 2019. We have got enough points and now we do not have to go through qualifyings, we want to work hard from here. We have to identify the players we want to take forward.
