Champions Trophy 2017: Pakistan forces England out with a magnificent win

June 15, 2017: England was on the receiving end of a huge upset when Pakistan knocked it out of the Champions Trophy 2017 tournament. After qualifying for the tournament in eighth place, Pakistan is now set to face either Bangladesh or India in the final at The Oval.

Pakistan outsmarted England totally, thanks to a pitch that was completely in line with Sarfraz Ahmed’s side’s strengths.

What went in Pakistan’s favour was how the pitch lost all the grass after it defeated Sri Lanka on the same venue.

The slow, low turn suited the style of Pakistani bowlers. It turned, it scratched the balls for the reverse-swingers, and it kept low so the Pakistan’s batsmen didn’t have to face the odd bouncer.

England would have been shocked to realise that there wasn’t much of home advantage going in their favour.

Most of England’s batsmen found it difficult to go top gear. Joe Root managed to get plenty of singles, but he was caught behind while going for a big shot against a leg break.

Towards the end of England’s innings, its batsmen suffered a severe dearth of boundaries, while Pakistan’s fielders became more and more enthused by the outcome. Pakistan was able to dominate the proceedings with its bowling, thanks to the incredible variety, which included three left-arm bowlers – a quality that England didn’t have.

England’s leading opening partner, Alex Hales, did the first blunder by running down and driving to cover. Jonny Bairstow did well to deal with the spinners and justify his selection. He actually did it better than Jason Roy.  But he eventually got out by paying offensively against short balls. If truth be told, Bairstow, Moeen Ali and Liam Plunkett did the same mistake.

Barring Chris Woakes, no one in England’s middle order could survive the spells of Pakistan’s reverse-swingers. Ben Stokes tried his best but scored just 11 runs off his first 31 balls before getting out to a slower ball from Hasan Ali.

Pakistan eventually made the target of 212 look like cakewalk, credit goes to its first century opening stand for 35 ODIs. Fakhar Zaman did edge some bouncers but it landed nowhere near the fielders. Azhar Ali was content to play his usual test opener knock. Jos Buttler bagged a stumping but missed another off Adil Rashid, who didn’t have any runs no board.

In the end, it seemed like England had buckled under the pressure of a big game. One wonders whether England will have any chance of winning the next World Cup when they host it in 2019.