CT 2017, Semi-final 1 - Who Said What: England v Pakistan

An England vs India final was already predicted given the form of both the teams. Even the most ardent Pakistan fans relied more on prayers to ensure the team goes through. But as it turns out the unpredictable Pakistan team stunned England to script an emphatic win and command their way into the final of the Champions Trophy.

Sarfraz Ahmed won the toss and decided to field first it left a lot of people wondering and questioning the team’s ability to chase targets given how they huffed and puffed to score 236 against Sri Lanka the other day. But it was a plan. The skipper trusted his bowlers to get the opposition out early and then the batsmen to bat responsibly.

Exactly that happened. It was debutant Rumman Raees who got them the first breakthrough with the wicket of Alex Hales. Jonny Bairstow who replaced Jason Roy in the game was tentative to start with but once gained his natural stride looked fluent. He had a 56-run partnership with Joe Root but got out for 43. Root added 48 with skipper Eoin Morgan before walking back with 46 runs.

By this time Hassan Ali was in the middle of a brilliant spell, he was seaming the ball off the deck and troubling the batsmen with the movement he was able to extract. While his first success was Bairstow he struck twice to give them two major blows with the scalps of Morgan and Ben Stokes who scored 33 and 34 respectively.

For the first time in the tournament, no English batter stayed at the crease long enough to anchor the innings. They all had starts but none got a half century. The lower order failed as well and they were folded up for 211 in 49.5 overs.

If England had to make a comeback their bowlers had to fire up a few quick wickets but the Pakistani opening pair of Azhar Ali and Fakhar Zaman knew the pressure was on the hosts and stayed patient while getting their runs. Their 118-run partnership quite literally sealed the game for Pakistan. Both scored half centuries and eventually got out for 76 and 57 respectively.

There was no twist in the tale as Babar Azam and Mohammad Hafeez batted with the responsibility to keep the chase in complete control. With almost 13 overs in hand, Hafeez hit the winning runs to book a maiden final berth for the team in the Champions Trophy.

Hasan Ali who returned with figures of 10-0-35-3 was awarded the Man of the Match:

“It’s a big match, so we focused on our bowling. My coach Azhar Mahmmod helped me a lot, he gave me the plan and I implemented it.”

The most prized wicket for him was that of the opposition skipper and he dedicated the award to his brother who will celebrate his birthday tomorrow.

Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed and coach Mickey Arthur hugged each other in joy as soon as the winning runs were scored and that depicted how much this win and a final appearance means to both of them as well as the team.

Sarfraz said: “We bowled very well and after that the batting was good too. Mohammad Amir wasn’t playing but Raees came in and did well. We elected to bowl and chase again. After India, every game was a knockout game, I said to the players to just play your game.

When asked if he is expecting a rematch with India in the final the wicketkeeper-skipper stated, “Both teams are playing well, so we will play whoever gets through. He’s (Hasan Ali) very impressive, hopefully he will do that in the final;. Whenever he comes on he’s getting wickets.”

They were the tournament favourites well before the start. It was played in their backyard, the last time they played in the tournament lost to India in the finals and this time make an exit a step earlier.

Skipper Eoin Morgan said: “One thing we didn’t do was adapt to conditions, coming from Edgbaston to a used wicket, Pakistan did that well and played better. We did prepare, Pakistan bowled well but we didn’t adjust and 200 isn’t competitive, 250-270 would be a good score.

On being asked about playing on a used pitch he said, “It’s a test… There wasn’t (wrong with the wicket). We bowled okay but 200 was well under par. We continue to learn, everything we did was calculated, but Pakistan had played on the wicket previously and that helped. You have to adapt in knockout cricket, so it’s an important lesson.”