Lord's: Ajantha Mendis didn't take a wicket and Shahid Afridi never hit him for a boundary but the "demystifying" of the Sri Lankan spinner told greatly on his team's defeat in the finals of the ICC World Twenty20 here on Sunday.
Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara conceded that Pakistan had played his "mystery spinner" too often in recent times and it had played into his opposition's hands. What he didn't know was that an Indian had also contributed hugely in Pakistan's quest to tackle Mendis.
Indian opener Gautam Gambhir and Shahid Afridi were lodged in the same hotel with their teams in central London in the second week of the competition when they caught up with each other over a dinner. Afridi had then inquired Gambhir, arguably one who has played Mendis best so far, on how to come to terms with the Sri Lankan spinner.
Afridi's questions were specific: how to spot when Mendis was bowling a googly or varying the degree of spin or when he was in "carom ball" delivery mode. Gambhir patiently shared all his knowledge with Afridi which must be kind of a news in itself as the world believed their was no love lost between the two cricketers. Afridi and Gambhir were involved in an ugly confrontation during a match of the 2006-07 series and the latter was even hauled up in front of the match-referee.
Well clearly much water has passed under the bridge since then and Gambhir was more than keen to help out Afridi. The mercurial Pakistani at that stage must not have known if his side would end up facing Sri Lanka again in the tournament. But his eagerness was just a reflection on how desperate Afridi was to succeed.
Gambhir's mantra was no different to what he has maintained all along. "I think it is important to pick him from his fingers because most of the variations which he does, he does from his fingers and it is important to pick him then."
On June 12, exactly nine days before the finals, Sri Lanka and Pakistan had faced each other in a Super Eight match at Lord's only. Afridi had then got out for nought, a victim of Muthiah Muralidharan's mastery. Pakistan had then lost by 19 runs.
Today it was Afridi's turn to get his even. He hit a half century and Pakistan won by eight wickets. In a strange way, there was enough for the newly crowned winners to thank an Indian.
