It's possible Babar Azam has never batted in as humdrum an atmosphere as what existed at the Narendra Modi Stadium while he was around, making India work. When you are box-office royalty, even a simple hand wave can fire the decibel levels. So what are the chances that a pristine cover drive elicits nothing more than pin-drop silence? It just seems wrong, right?
When Babar bats, even the most objective person cannot help the odd clap or loud thump. It's simply a natural reaction to witnessing a thing of beauty. And Babar's shots are this most times. The kind of shots you pay big money to watch. And people who flocked into Motera on Saturday invested big, of course.
Whether it was the time taken to cover train journeys from the far east or down south, or spending a night in pitched tents at designated spots on the outskirts in neighbouring Nadiad. People had traded months of savings and plenty of energy just to be able to witness the occasion.
And then they saw Babar bat. There was disdain and dominance in the way he simply met the ball right under his eyes and caressed it with minimal feet. It's the kind of batsmanship that has wings to transport you into a parallel universe. Like the on-drive he welcomed Shardul Thakur with first ball. Ufff. High elbow, straight bat, an element of wrist, a lovely followthrough. Magic.
Babar was simply loading up and the stunned silence in the crowd told you quite clearly that India had a task at hand. But Rohit Sharma and Co weren't perhaps as stressed as the crowd was; they knew their bowling had all-round awesomeness. And all it took was one awe-inspiring spell to kill off the contest. Even batters as seasoned as Babar and Mohammad Rizwan, coming off a seminal knock in the previous game, weren't immune to it.
Pakistan's tactic seemed clear. Build an innings, go deep and then tee off. Babar was largely copybook in his pursuit, Rizwan a bit more enterprising. One of his first acts was one of daredevilry - you simply don't sweep Ravindra Jadeja against the turn, at least not that early.
ESPNcricinfo's Karthik Krishnaswamy posed this question to Jadeja after the Australia game, asking whether he lines up a batter based on the surface and how he decides the amount of turn he wants to impart to a delivery. Jadeja jokingly dismissed it, not wanting to give away much for the risk of his plans being "printed in English" for the world to read. It's now a popular Instagram reel beneath which there's sound logic for anyone wanting to decode it.
Rizwan completely shunned the sweep against the turn from deliveries starting on middle from there on. It was a direct acknowledgment of Jadeja's skills. As Jadeja went about tying knots at one end, Kuldeep Yadav was strengthening this position at the other. Pakistan's first reaction was to try and keep him out, limiting their range of shots. Kuldeep strung together 17 dots in five overs and even nearly had Babar lbw. The pressure to break free was beginning to show.
The stranglehold wasn't lost on Rohit. He duly went back to Mohammed Siraj in the hope of a wicket in the 28th over and succeeded two overs later when Siraj had Babar. He was no more than a split-second late on a ball he wanted to glide but was defeated by the skid. You wondered if all that risk was worth one run, but then it's also a shot he profits a lot from.
It's a pressure-relieving shot that Babar plays with great finesse; when he reels off boundaries through them, it seems all too cute and mushy. So far this tournament, Babar hadn't lasted long enough for teams to apply this kind of squeeze. Now that India had done it, it was the first time he'd been tested in a real sense. And he didn't quite get his release shot right in the first instance. This then was the inch of an opening that India would go on to open up into an acre.
Saud Shakeel could've been out second ball had Siraj effected a direct hit at the bowler's end, but he couldn't cash in on the luck. If it was skid that did Babar in, decisiveness cost Saud as he played back to one that drifted in. It was a costly mistake against Kuldeep, who is a confidence bowler.
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When he's in rhythm, there's an unmistakable confidence to his wrong 'uns. Some wristspinners use it as a stock ball, Kuldeep doesn't, but cleverly varies his line of attack. Iftikhar Ahmed expected the ball to spin in, and because it started from outside leg, he backed himself to go through with the slog sweep even though he didn't get to the pitch of it. This one went the other way and snuck through to crash into the stumps. At that point, Pakistan had lost 3 for 11 in 3.3 overs.
This is Kuldeep 2.0, but even in his previous avatar, he'd been gobbling up Pakistan's batters with his thrift and guile. Remember that ball to Babar from the 2019 World Cup? The ball that had Shane Warne guffawing in awe?
Okay, why go that far? Let's look back just six weeks prior, to Colombo, where he bamboozled Pakistan with a five-for at the Asia Cup. So, there's a history of struggle against Kuldeep. Here, in a World Cup game, a combination of mental cobwebs from the past and a bowler at his peak contributed to the collapse. It's the kind of scenario that leave captains wanting to attack from both ends and Rohit certainly wasn't in the mood to let it slip.
With Jasprit Bumrah back on, the alarm bells began to ring. Pakistan don't play India a lot, and there's only so much you can analyse. All told, Bumrah can bowl deliveries that can be hard to analyse. Sure, he does wicked angles, bowls mean bouncers, floors batters with pinpoint yorkers. But how can data and match-ups prepare you for his most underrated delivery - or is it underrated anymore? An offcutter that landed on a perfect length deviated just about enough to beat Rizwan's push. To outdo a batter with Rizwan's form, after he was well set, told you of Bumrah's clutch mentality. And yet it wasn't even his best ball.
That was reserved for Shadab Khan, who was befuddled by late seam movement that squared him up and kissed the top of off. They're deliveries you dream of as a fast bowler. This was no dream though; it was unfolding in reality. Pakistan's innings had just gone from being one full of hope half an hour earlier to a collapse of epic proportions. The heart of their innings had just been ripped out in broad daylight.
And just like that, the soft underbelly of their middle order, which had been papered over by individual brilliance on other nights, stood exposed. Rizwan had done the papering over three nights ago. Tonight's collapse left you wondering what would've been had Rizwan retired out with cramps back then. But now they were back to square one. Big top, weak middle.
For much of their innings, Pakistan had been walking a tightrope anyway, and that one passage of play from Kuldeep and Bumrah was the nightmare from hell that had the potential to undo everything they'd built up so far at this World Cup. Two wins, including a record chase, the emergence of young stars in Saud and Shafique, the return to form of Babar, and the Rizwan magic. All told, 8 for 36 in 80 balls in little over an hour - it's what nightmares are made of.
It all suddenly felt a little foggy for Pakistan. And the humdrum quiet was gone from the Motera.