'That's just mean fast bowling' - when Shaheen Afridi blitzed Ireland U19s
Six years ago, Shaheen Shah Afridi's sheer pace saw him take 6fer at the U19 World Cup as he terrorised a number of the current Ireland senior squad
The feeling is all too familiar for most cricketers. Taking guard, facing up to a fast bowler coming in off the long run, you know the opponent is too quick for you. Crucially, they do too.
The mental battle is already lost. Technique goes out the window. Staying in line with the ball and avoiding the temptation to back away is enough of a moral victory. Being bowled by a searing yorker is a good result. The risk of physical damage by way of a short ball has mercifully disappeared.
For most of us mere mortals, moments like these spell the end of our professional cricketing ambitions. For a good number of Ireland’s current senior international crop, one particular baptism by rapid fire didn’t end their careers.
Six years ago, Ireland played Pakistan at the U19 World Cup. The Irish line-up that day featured Harry Tector, Neil Rock and Josh Little. Morgan Topping, who impressed last season for the Northern Knights and has played for Ireland Wolves, was also involved. So too Graham Kennedy, a reserve player at the 2021 T20 World Cup.
Looking back, based on his career after that day in New Zealand, one name stands out for Pakistan: Shaheen Shah Afridi. The latest in his country’s long line of deadly left-arm quicks, Shaheen has gone on to trouble the best batters in the world. Yet on January 18th, 2018, in Whangarei, a city on New Zealand’s north island, Shaheen blitzed an Irish line-up which, quite frankly, was ill-equipped to deal with his top end pace. Six years on, he could well face Ireland in a senior international fixture for the first time, should he line out at Clontarf this weekend.
While it is easy to look back at clips of Shaheen terrorising India’s top order in the 2021 T20 World Cup and conclude it was inevitable that he would do the same to Ireland’s teenagers, his pace ensured he had a reputation long before his senior exploits. “Even during the qualifiers in Jersey the summer before, July 2017, as soon as we qualified we talked about who was in our group,” explains Max Neville, the Merrion fast bowler who was in Ireland’s squad for that World Cup.
“Obviously Pakistan were in our group and people were pulling up videos of him [Shaheen] taking wickets in domestic cricket. We acknowledged him bowling fast pretty quickly!”
All told, Shaheen bowled 8.5 overs on a grey New Zealand day conducive to moving the ball around. He took six wickets and conceded 15 runs. His economy of 1.69 tells you all you need to know about Ireland’s inability to get bat on ball.
“New Zealand’s conditions are very good, seam movement and bouncy wickets,” said a Shaheen in his man of the match interview at the time. “Fast bowlers really like these conditions.”
Neville adds more useful colour: “It was a fast bowling barrage, it was very aggressive,” he says. “I think there was a nice wind coming down the hill in the Cobham Oval. It felt like he was bowling off 19 yards.”
Topping was Shaheen’s first wicket, nicking a shorter delivery that jagged away from him. Next up was Tector who top-edged an attempted pull shot having been previously hit by a Shaheen bouncer. By his own admission, speaking in a separate interview, Tector “couldn’t play the short ball” at that stage of his career.
Such was Shaheen’s dominance, Pakistan decided to put a fielder at short leg. This during a white ball game.
With the man under the lid, Shaheen continued to go short. North County wicketkeeper Jamie Grassi took the bait, edging behind while attempting to hook. Earlier in his innings, footage shows how Grassi did at least fare marginally better than Tector when trying to duck out of the way of a short one, though more through luck than judgement. His method of choice was the customary turning of the head, taking your eye off the ball and hoping it doesn’t make contact.
Neil Rock wasn’t dismissed by Shaheen, but that just ensured more opportunities to be peppered. He ducked into one short ball to such an extent that Shaheen offered a stifled LBW appeal. Muhammad Musa, Shaheen’s partner in terrorising Ireland that day, also caused problems.
“There was a moment where Neil Rock got hit in the head,” recalls Neville. “You know those new guards the helmets have? They fell off. That’s not just fast bowling, that’s just mean fast bowling. There was definitely a few comments shared and a few knowing looks between the lads who still had to go out and bat.”
Where Rock prevailed - if staying in harm’s way counts as success - Kennedy failed. As Shaheen grew tired of hitting players and went searching for more wickets instead, the former Warriors all-rounder was late on a full delivery. His stumps were uprooted by the time he managed to play a shot.
Seamer Aaron Cawley suffered a similar fate with a second ball duck once the bowlers were sent out. Lambs to the slaughter.
Neville fared one ball better than his colleague, lasting three deliveries before Shaheen uprooted yet more timber. “The first one came straight in and plonked me on my toe,” he recalls. “I didn’t see it. It came off the mushy part of your toe so it didn’t end up hurting, but I really didn’t see it.
“The next ball I probably came up with fresh air. Then he bowls me. On video it looks like I’m giving myself space to open up the off side, but I was backing away. We did have a laugh about that.”
Finally put out of their misery, Ireland were bowled out for 97, a total Pakistan chased down comfortably in less than nine overs. It was a day where Ireland’s shallow playing pool, the inability to both develop and train against such dangerous quick bowlers, was exposed.
Neville, once a fast bowling prospect, explains that Ireland’s issue isn’t talent, but rather style and volume. “These guys weren’t so fast that it was alien,” he says of Shaheen and co. “We’d just not been hit with something so aggressive and so effectively aggressive.
“There were people bowling quick at club cricket, pros throughout the year, chaps like David Delany, bowlers who on their day can fire it up quick, close to these guys. It does make you realise the volume of talent they [Pakistan] have. Our talent pool was thin. I can name on one hand the bowlers in Ireland who can bowl above a certain speed. In Pakistan, there’s a constant flow of bowlers coming through.”
With Little still at the IPL, Ireland’s one true fast bowler won’t be on show this weekend. By contrast, Pakistan have their left-handed trump card at the ready. Six years on from that U19 World Cup, as he prepares for a belated maiden senior outing against this opposition, few would bet against Shaheen once again asking questions of this Irish batting line-up.
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