ICC Champions Trophy 2017: Staunch Sarfraz Recouped Pakistan’s Admittance to Semis

In the stewing tug of war between Pakistan and Sri Lanka that had almost embraced every corners of possible hardships, Pakistan at the cusp of the game prevailed their worth by standing out lesser flawed. Despite Pakistan’s quick batting implosion while attempting to chase down the target of 237, Sri Lanka’s rotten endeavours which comprised with few of their costly school boy errors sort of ensured Lanka’s expulsion from this very Champions League. Pakistani players were almost on their knees while executing the sub par chase of 237 but the skipper Sarfraz Ahmed with his hard-nosed endeavour of remaining unbeaten on 76 erased all the looming debacles and rode his side towards the three wicket victory in Cardiff, where they will face host England in the last-four clash in two days’ time.

Given requisite applause to Pakistan’s four pronged bowling blitzkrieg which uprooted Sri Lankan sturdy batting onslaught and laid out the most suitable platform for their batsmen to cruise through but only three of them including the tail-ender Mohammad Amir could be able to utilise it properly. In the middle Fakhar Zaman’s dominating 36-ball half-century and the highest eighth-wicket partnership in the history of Champions Trophy between Sarfraz (61 not out) and Amir (28 not out) were the only show Pakistan exhibited through their bat. Such batting exhibition from Pakistan team during the match appeared as serving their fans and highly animated coach Micky Arthur, another approaching evening of pure pain and agony.

Lasith Malinga with his second last spell in a nervy period brought out the true essence of this tug of war fixture where none of the sides were capable of handling the pressure. Although Pakistan were on the edge over Sri Lanka considering the run rate factor as Pakistan were only in need of 44 runs in 12 overs but their leftover blitz in batting depth budged a bit towards Lanka. In order to put water in Pakistan’s ray of hope all they needed to do was uprooting the skipper Sarfraz’s role play from the progression of their chasing quest. The burden of such was given to none other than the most trustworthy bowler from Lanka’s side, Malinga, who in order to remove the chip from his shoulder summoned all his experience to dish out his finely disguised slower one that bamboozled the skipper Sarfraz very well but the entire trap turned up as miscued one causing the inability from Thisara Perera’s end in gripping the ball. The look on his face, Malinga’s head in his palms and Angelo Mathews’s shake of the head gave away what that drop meant to Sri Lanka.

Their agony hadn’t really ended there, it went into a deeper section when another opportunity handed out by Sarfraz to Sri Lankan side. This time substitute fielder Seekkuge Prasanna put his best in the business as he covered a long way to position himself following the declination of the ball but his hard work ended with a sorrow tone the ball popped out of his hand and led Pakistan a step closer towards victory.

Pakistan rather than leaving Mathew’s led side to commit harakiri out of pressure, they themselves provided room for entertainment to the Lanka side by spicing up their own run of the mill run chase. Zaman’s initial onslaught to Malinga and later on converting his momentum to clinch his first ODI fifty off just 34 balls, before his dismissal in the 12th over which gave Sri Lanka an opening to carve Pakistan’s batting order open. Sri Lanka were aided by some tentative batting downfall of Pakistan’s top-order likely the dismissal of Babar Azam and Mohammad Hafeez which cranked up the pressure a bit. Once the fortune seemed to cloud over Sri Lanka, Mathews came up with astute bowling changes which brought a wicket every time along with gambled bowlers. With three wickets down by the 17th over, Mathew’s gamble of shuffling his bowlers paid off as Suranga Lakmal returned for his second spell and removed Azhar Ali for 34 in the 20th over.

Following Malinga’s second spell which uprooted Shoaib Malik, Pradeep got back to action that paid off with the wicket of Imad Wasim. After all this collapses Pakistan stood weak at 137 for 6 in the 26th over. Debutant Fahim Ashraf bagged a lot of confidence in his two hits to the fence, but couldn’t retain the impetus more than 15 balls on his debut. A straight drive from Sarfraz bounced back onto the stumps at the non-striker’s end through bowler Thisara Perera’s gentle touch of fingers which showed in replay that Ashraf’s bat was in the air, only just, when the ball triggered the LED lights to life.

At 162 for 7, the calm and composed Mohammad Amir stepped up to the middle to screw the tilting momentum towards Sri Lanka. His batting support as a good company made it easy for Sarfraz to edgily eat into the deficit before claiming to be victorious in the 45th over. Sarfraz’s victory lap at the end exhibited an exceptional victory for Pakistan but the majority share of applause went to the bowlers who put in the early hard work. Especially when Sri Lanka was on 161 for 3 at the 31-over mark, with a flamboyant Niroshan Dickwella and a resourceful Mathews in the middle, Pakistan were looking at a target closer to the 300-run mark. However, Junaid Khan and Amir bowled exceptionally well in tandem to prune Sri Lanka’s high flying demeanour and left them lurching on 167 for 7.

A eloquent 29-ball 27 from Kusal Mendis and a 46-run eighth wicket partnership between Asela Gunaratne and Suranga Lakmal dragged Sri Lanka to a prestigious total which after loads of ups and downs Pakistan hunted it down.