London: Mohammed Aamir needed a closure. The Oval gave him a perfect platform and boy he grabbed it as if there wasn’t a tomorrow.
The closure was needed, more so for his fans, who over the years have loved and hated him in equal measure.
They love him for those wrists that can do amazing things with a six-and-half ounce of round leather ball. They hate him for wasting five precious years of his life indulging in a nefarious activity like spot-fixing, which was purely his own doing.
It’s been nearly a year and half that Aamir has made a comeback into international cricket. He has had good performances. However, for redemption, he needed a bigger stage and a bigger occasion. And since the opposition was India in an ICC event final, Aamir just couldn’t let this go.
“What I do know is that Mohammad Aamir is a big-match player. I do know that when the game is on the line and the bigger the game, the more he performs. He doesn’t shy away from pressure situations,” Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur said.
“He doesn’t shy away from big games. He has got a proper big match temperament, and he showed that today (Sunday) on the biggest stage,” the coach summed up Amir’s performance.
It was a flat deck. The white ball has simply refused to help bowlers in this edition of Champions Trophy. But if someone is talented, his performance is not condition dependant. In a spell lasting just six overs, he made it Pakistan’s day… more importantly, redemption was complete for him.
He had bowled a couple of ‘life-changing deliveries’ in a space of seven years in United Kingdom. The first was a ‘no-ball’ that took him to jail. The second (delivery to Virat Kohli) was a wicket that perhaps mentally made him a ‘free man’. Till date he was just out on ‘bail’.
The media waited for him at the ‘Mixed Zone’. But Aamir did not turn up. He did not want to face uncomfortable questions. He had found his ‘peace’.
