ICC Champions Trophy 2017: 5 biggest surprises from the tournament

Surprise (noun): An unexpected or astonishing event

Pakistan winning the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 was as surprising as Leicester City winning the Premier League or Aizawl FC clinching the I-League title. Against all odds, Sarfraz Ahmed and his band of boys conquered the world with brave performances. No one had given them even an atom's chance of going into the knockout stages, let alone winning it.

This tournament, as a whole, turned out to give us a bundle of surprises and on top of that, an India-Pakistan final was a dream showdown for the sponsors and the broadcasters. New players emerged, old warriors let their guard down along with the old powerhouses seeing their power dwindle. On that note, let's take a look at the five biggest surprises coming from the Champions Trophy:

#5 Pitches

England is known for his lively pitches. Conditions which offer swing and decks that offer movement with both bat and ball having a chance in the game. But as has the norm been in the modern cricket, this Champions Trophy saw pitches being extremely flat with absolutely no movement available to the fast bowlers.

300 was a regularity in the first week and the tournament opened up when same pitches were used for multiple matches which made the surface slow. There was little seam movement on offer as the advent of T20 led to the pitches being made for the sake of big run scores instead of a close fair contest between the bat and ball.

#4 South Africa

The Proteas were dumped out of the group stages

The Proteas were understandably one of the pre-tournament favourites along with England and India coming into the tournament ranked as the top ODI side in the ICC rankings. They had probably the deepest batting lineup out of the eight teams and a right balance in their team, at least on paper. This team had the number one batsman and bowler in their ranks but once again the past repeated itself but this time in a very surprising manner.

Captain AB De Villiers and his men started the campaign in the best possible way after beating Sri Lanka in a rather one-sided contest. But the next two games showed the world why they are the perennial underachievers in world cricket.

What could have gone wrong for South Africa went wrong as they succumbed under pressure against India and also had no answers for an inspired Pakistani side! South Africa were the favourites to reach the semis and this side failing to qualify from a relatively easy group on paper came as a big, big surprise.

#3 The rise of Fakhar Zaman

Fakhar Zaman gave Pakistan brilliant starts in all the games that he played

Pakistan were in dire need of an attacking batsman up front after their debacle against India in the tournament opener. Enter Fakhar Zaman. The man who was in the Navy ten years ago played the entire tournament like a soldier on a mission and completed his task against all odds and without any inhibitions.

More than the runs he scored, Zaman's fearlessness seemed to have rubbed off on his teammates which in turn enabled them to stage one of the biggest underdog stories of all time. In four matches, the southpaw scored 252 runs at an average of 63. His brilliant century against India etched his name in Pakistan's folklore and the world also got to see an aggressive side of Pakistan which wasn't on the show for years.

#2 Bangladesh qualifying for the semifinals

Bangladesh raised eyebrows in the Champions Trophy

The Bangla Tigers entered this tournament after almost a decade and were in a group which included the two finalists of the 2015 World Cup and the favourites for the cup, England. This was a proper group of death in an ICC event where the luck had never favoured Bangladesh on foreign pitches.

But all the predictions went for a toss in the last 20 days for Bangladesh as they pummelled their way into the semis after winning their do or die match against New Zealand. Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmadullah were the architects of that win as a 224-run partnership helped them dump the Kiwis. Though they were crushed by India in the semifinal, Bangladesh continued their progress on an upward trend by matching toe to toe against superior looking sides.

#1 Subcontinent teams punching above their weight

India and Pakistan played in an ICC 50 over event for the first time

The first week of the mini World Cup was dominated by rain which saw a low turnout for all the games. The tournament was heading down as a disaster before the second week injected much-needed life into it. The teams which weren't given a chance won their games in the second week and started regaining lost ground. At the end of the group stages, the Champions Trophy had become a sort of Asia Cup.

Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were deemed by many as being a level down than the top five teams in the world. But the Asian teams started punching above their weight to change the dynamics of the game and dumping the likes of Australia and South Africa from the group stages.

It was the spark generated by the subcontinent teams which gave Champions Trophy a much-needed boost in terms of popularity and importance which came more as a shock than a surprise.