At the commencement of the Champions Trophy Tournament in England, not many people gave Pakistan a chance of going beyond the preliminary stages of this tournament. However, the Pakistan Team stunned everyone by beating India in the Final to take the Champions Trophy.
Pakistan in their first game of the tournament against India were comprehensively beaten and it seemed that this trend would continue for them for the rest of the tournament. In their second match of the tournament against South Africa, they came back strongly to win the rain affected game by the Duckworth & Lewis calculations. Here the Pakistan bowlers showed that they had fire power to dismiss the formidable South African batting lineup for a total of 219. In their turn Pakistan scored 119 for 3 wickets in 27 overs to be ahead of South Africa when play was abandoned. Had Pakistan to score 219 to win this game it would have been a stiff challenge for them considering that South Africa had a good bowling attack.
Pakistan’s final game in the group matches was against Sri Lanka at Cardiff in Wales. This game proved to be a very tight contest with fortunes fluctuating from side to side almost till the end of the game. Sri Lanka were able to muster only a total of 236 runs after being in a good position to get up to a score of around 260 to 270 midway through their innings. Pakistan’s run chase followed a similar pattern to the Sri Lankan innings and at one stage they were 162 for 7 wickets when it seemed that Sri Lanka were favourites to win this game. A determined partnership for the 8th wicket between Skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed and Mohammed Amir, better known for his bowling prowess, enabled Pakistan to win the game by 3 wickets. During this partnership when Pakistan were 40 runs short of the required score, Sri Lankan fielders spilled two vital catches which enabled Pakistan to post this victory and secure a semi final berth against England.
The semifinal against England too was played at Cardiff. England batted first and were able to total only 211 runs in their 50 overs due to some excellent bowling by the Pakistan bowling attack, spear headed by Hassan Ali in the absence of strike bowler Mohammed Amir, who did not play in this game due to injury. Pakistan made short work of reaching this total of 212. The Pakistan batting, which looked suspect in the previous game against Sri Lanka, came good with the openers putting on 122 runs before being separated. This victory was a big upset. England was fancied to go through to the Final and win this tournament as they had the home advantage.
The Final was between arch rivals India and Pakistan at the Surrey Oval in London. Although Pakistan had shown improvement during the course of the tournament many critics predicted that India would win this game without much difficulty, as they had being playing consistently well and had the psychological advantage of having beaten Pakistan comprehensively in the group match at the same venue. India won the toss and decided to bowl first in the hope that they would be in a position to restrict the Pakistanis to a total which they could chase easily. The Pakistan openers found run scoring difficult due to some very tight bowling by the Indian opening bowlers Bhuwaneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumra. During this period left handed Fakhar Zaman edged one to wicked keeper Dhoni, only to find by a review made by the Umpire that Bumrah had over stepped. This reprieve enabled Fakhar to bat freely and fearlessly to score 114 runs. The openers had a partnership of 128 runs which laid a platform for the Pakistani batsmen to total 338 for 4 wickets in their allotted 50 overs. India going into bat were put under pressure when Mohammed Amir in a spell of hostile and accurate pace bowling captured 3 vital Indian wickets of Rohit Sharma, Shikar Dhawan and Skipper Virat Kohli for just 33 runs from which the Indian batsmen were unable to recover. It was only a spirited 76 runs by Hardik Pandiya which enabled India to post a Total of 158. The Pakistan bowlers were so effective that they were able to dismiss the powerful Indian batting lineup in just 30.3 overs. Thus Pakistan emerged champions in this tournament after having been ranked as the 8th Team at the commencement of the tournament.
The title of this article reads as ‘Pakistan destined to win #CT17”. The two spilt catches by Sri Lanka and the wicket taking ‘no ball’ bowled by Bumrah in the Final were decisive in their emerging as champions. It must be stated in favour of the Pakistan Team that they progressively improved in their performances in the tournament and beat the two fancied sides of England and India to win this tournament.
