June 25, 2017
By Saeed Qureshi
In order to determine the winner of the eighth edition of
the ICC Champions Trophy the final of the 2017 ICC
Champions Trophy was played on 18 June 2017 between Pakistan and India at the Oval ground in London. Pakistan scored
338 runs and won that prestigious match by 180 runs. Indian team could score
merely 158 in 30.3 overs. Pakistani team batted first which proved to be a boon
for the winning team.
The
ICC” s Champion Trophy is considered as very prestigious. It assumed a nerve-wrecking
importance as it was being played between the two staunch regional rivals
namely India and Pakistan. There was a pall of gloom in Pakistan due to a
series of matches won by India for quite some time against Pakistan. It was
with this background that India was being considered as a strong team and
probable winner of the ICC series.
India’s
performance in both batting and balling in the previous matches with other
teams has been quite impressive. Lot of expectations were riveted on Virat
Kohli Rohil and Sharma Shikhar Dhawan whose scores in the international cricket
have been remarkable.
Yet the game of
cricket, occasionally, turns out to be unpredictable and that is what happened.
India was defeated by Pakistani team and dispatched it with a meagre score of
158 runs. The Indian batsmen fell like the house of cards one after another.
The dispatch of Virat Kohli, the captain and a tenacious run maker with five runs
was, the most devastating blow to the Indian team. Pakistani team’s stature
enhanced enormously as they scored a victory with high margin and only with 6
players of the team.
The defeat in
such international matches is also graceful when the teams are competing for
the final match or the crown. A victory is certainly like hitting at a jackpot
although a jackpot is by luck while the triumph through skill, hard work and
tenacity assumes a lasting honor and historic laurel.
Between 1950 and
2017 there have been 59 test matches played between India and Pakistan. Out of
these, Pakistan won 12 matches while India won 9. The rest were drawn. Each
match had been crucial and treated as symbol of the national honor. Out of 129 ODIS
(one day international) matches, Pakistan won 73 while India won52. In T20Is matches
(Twenty20 International) India
won 7 while Pakistan could bag only one match. These figures show that overall
Pakistan has been a leading winner in most of cricket competitions between the
two regional rivals.
It should be
noted that behind the matches particularly that of cricket between India and
Pakistan, there has always been a predominant national sentiment. Each match
whether it is the test match, one day match or under twenty match turns into a stake
for national prestige for both the countries. The overriding political conflict
between India and Pakistan spills over in other fields including the games
particularly the cricket matches.
Prior to the 2017
ICC Trophy match there prevailed a gloom and depression that Pakistan cannot
win the final in the light of the past persistent victories by India. India was
also tipped as a favorite by international reckoning. But cricket game sometime
turns unpredictable and the tide goes against the most powerful and most favorite
team or the side.
It would in order
to individually mention the Pakistani cricket team members who were
instrumental in achieving this most prestigious victory for Pakistan. First of
all, the credit goes to the team captain Sarfraz Ahmed for his prudent
captaincy and for paving way for the historical victory. Then the credit goes
to the opener Fakhar Zaman who scored mammoth 114 runs thus consolidating
Pakistan’s position at the initial stages. He must be very lucky as on the
first ball he was out but that turned out to be no ball and that proved to be a
turning point for him to move forward with a great deal of confidence.
Fast paced bowler
Muhammad Aamir remained barred from playing cricket for five years for his
involvement in match fixing. But he duly compensated for his misdemeanor by
taking three important wickets of Virat Kholi, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan.
Virat was ousted twice by Aamir Khan but the first was declared as no ball and
in the second ball he took Virat’s wicket.
In this final
crucial match, Pakistan inducted such players who had not played previously in
any international cricket match. Their names are Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan,
Rooman Rais and Fahim Ashraf. That strategy worked perfectly well.
This match would
serve as a big morale-boosting victory for Pakistan as well as for the players
for quite a long time to come. Even if the Indian team squares this brilliant achievement
with a future Pakistani team, the historic setback of the present Indian team
and its poor performance would always remain as distinctive part of the history
of the International cricket.
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