ICC Champions Trophy Semi Final 1: Unblemished Pakistan Pulverizes England To Reach Final

The first Semi final between Pakistan and England of the ongoing Champions league witnessed its denouement in a dramatic fashion where the Sarfraz led side Pakistan successfully cashed in their cricketing endeavours against the ruthless Morgan & Co. Fifties from Azhar Ali and Fakhar Zaman after Pakistan’s finest exhibition with the ball in Champions Trophy 2017 ensured Sarfraz Ahmed’s side to a crushing eight-wicket defeat of hosts England, and hence the spot to the final, on Wednesday (June 14).

Sarfraz’s clever move of opting to bowl first on a dry Cardiff surface on a warm and sunny day turned out to be lucrative as his smart and instinctive bowling changes were resonating with the tone of his bowler’s endeavours. Bowlers stepped up to maintain the unison through supporting their skipper’s move. The pace attack led by Mohammad Amir were on its roll but in the middle Pakistan’s spin triumvirate kept up the pressure by applying the choke and besides of that their bowler’s refusal to room the England batsmen even an inch of comfort during the slog overs set the game up nicely for them.

In Amir’s absence, debutant Rumman Raees blended in well into Pakistan’s bowling plans, that initially revolved around frustrating Alex Hales with a straighter line and length that didn’t allow the England opener to dominate early – something he has rather enjoyed doing in the 50-over format in recent times. Soon enough, he bit the bullet and tried to find a way out, only to gift Raees his maiden ODI scalp. The big occasion did not seem to overwhelm Sarfraz, as he made swift bowling changes and struck gold on almost each occasion.

With England brushing aside an early wicket and marching to a brisk score by the 10th over, Sarfraz unfurled his next trump card – employing spin from both ends and getting Imad Wasim and Shadab Khan to tie down the batsmen with flat trajectories. Another attack-minded batter – Jonny Bairstow – was thus consumed.

Morgan and Joe Root’s partnership was characterised by a period of lull, when the boundaries dried up completely as Sarfraz threw the ball to Hafeez, whose spin bowling too was bereft of any flight. The partnership between Morgan and Root was building but hardly at a pace they’d have liked, as Shadab and Hafeez kept tightening the noose. They bowled eight overs in tandem from the 23rd, during which Root’s attempt to cut a shortish ball from Shadab resulted in the former’s return to the pavilion, caught behind for an uncharacteristic 56-ball 46.

Such was Pakistan bowlers’ propensity that even Stokes couldn’t bring about an upturn in England’s fortunes. Hasan and Junaid foiled his hopes of teeing off, England could only make 36 runs between the 30th and the 40th over. If Zaman’s phenomenal catching effort at deep square leg to dismiss Moeen in the 39th over wasn’t evidence enough, there was a lot more to suggest that Pakistan’s stars were continuing to align perfectly.

Raees lived up to his reputation of being a resourceful death bowler, smartly dropping the pace on the ball and unfurling his cutters frequently. In complete contrast to the lofty expectations, Stokes (34 off 64 balls) suffered perhaps his worst outing with the bat, earning an ignominious statistic of facing most deliveries without scoring a boundary in the history of Champions Trophy, before becoming Hasan Ali’s third wicket of the day.

In a pleasant turn of events for Pakistan, their batting onslaught went on hand to hand with the enormous toil put in by the bowlers. Defending only 212, England were on the real rummage of wickets as taking wickets at every intervals was the only prerogative for them but the same endeavor from England’s side was thwarted in the fourth ball of the innings, when a top-edge off a Fakhar Zaman pull landed in the stands for the first six of the game.

Zaman’s continuous blitzkrieg with bat were piling up England’s desperation as the tries of Mark Wood and Jake Ball against the left hander were every time put down to vein. Their return as empty handed kept on worrying Morgan as Zaman’s brilliant batting performance made the task easier for Azhar Ali whose typically clumsy start was not bothered by Pakistan. Ben Stokes and Liam Plunkett, the next edition of bowling onslaught from England’s end was also sidelined by Zaman. Pakistan’s cruise ship rode through Zaman’s smart batting potential bled 32 runs in the four overs next two English bowlers bowled. Despite of getting nothing out of this endeavor Morgan led side kept on digging it short but every it got clobbered badly by Zaman. As the time passes the clumsy Azhar too found a way to tackle those deliveries, just going into the line of the deliveries and then pulled it off to the fine legs.

Introduction of spin from England’s end didn’t really work for them as spinning onslaught as well failed to clip Zaman’s free flying wings of blitzkrieg. Hence riding on his magnificent hands on bat Zaman soon reached his second fifty and following the same Azhar also seemed finding his feet with the help of his dogged survival approach to the game. Later on he too found his half century. This was what essayed the Pakistan’s batting dominance over the English jocks. But after a while Zaman’s wicket (58-ball 57) in the over of Adil Rashid flew in as a faint of hope for England’s standpoint.

After the Zaman’s wicket, Babar Azam came to the middle and straight away eyed on to build up a modest partnership along with Azhar as there was need to go big. Utilising the foundation drafted by Zaman and Azhar, Azam too handed out his crucial input to the semis by going non risky. The only risk embraced by these couple of batsmen after their 55 run stand was the maximum hit by Azam in Rashid’s carved delivery.

Although Ball’s well disguised slower bouncer did the task for England as it uprooted the solid stand in England’s victorious way Azhar Ali. Azhar’s dismissal after 55 runs partnership along with Azam introduced the inevitability in England’s ouster from the tournament which was palpable. Hafeez arrival after the same rode Pakistan’s ship over the victorious line as his stand with Azam turned out to serve the leftover with the ease. Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur with a smile on his face standing in the balcony witnessed this victorious quest of his side. In contrast to their last victory against Sri Lanka this one indeed appeared to be more special as their dark horse avatar at last toppled the most favorite side of this championship trophy.

A cake walk to the final would’ve been an ambitious dream for Pakistan ahead of the game against England, considering they were up against one of the tournament favourites. But like Eoin Morgan had warily said at the toss, England’s mercurial opposition were capable of upstaging any team on their day. It was indeed one of those days, but mainly so because of the hard yards put in by the bowlers.