On the back of another stellar bowling performance, Pakistan thrashed England by eight wickets to book their place in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 final on Sunday. After winning the toss, Sarfraz Ahmed had no hesitation in electing to field and his bowlers made the most of that.
England were bundled out for 211 with none of the batsmen really getting going despite the loss of Mohammad Amir before the start of the game. Hasan Ali led the bowling attack with a match-winning spell and the openers put on a hundred partnership and set the platform before Babar Azam and Mohammad Hafeez saw them home with 12.5 overs to spare.
Hasan Ali
“England are a big team and we have bowled well. The way I bowled against South Africa, I tried to bowl the same way today. Against India, things did not go well in the last few overs but Azhar Mahmood helped me and I stuck to my plans. Eoin Morgan was my best wicket today. It's my brother's birthday tomorrow, so I dedicate this award to him.”
Eoin Morgan
“One thing which we did not do well today was to adapt to conditions, coming from Edgbaston. Full credit to Pakistan, they did that well. I don't think we were used to it. We did not prepare. Pakistan bowled well. We did not manage to adjust with the bat. 200 was not a competitive score. 250-60 would have been competitive. It's the way tournament is. We knew that coming into the tournament. It's the test of the Champions Trophy and you have to be prepared for it.
“There is no home advantage for any side. We bowled okay. I think we will continue to learn that. I don't think we played anything rash today. Everything that we played was pretty calculative. But simply the fact that Pakistan had played here, helped them. One of the things about knockout cricket is that you have to adjust to conditions as you go from venue to venue. With the World Cup coming up, it's important for us to go through games like today.“
Sarfraz Ahmed
“Credit goes to the bowlers and then the batsmen finished really well. Rumman bowled very well today. We decided to adapt to conditions, we knew if we could restrict them to 250-60, we could chase it. After the India game, the credit goes to the team management how they boosted us. Every game was a knockout game. Today as well they told us to not think about the match and just play the natural game. That helped us. Both teams are playing really well, all the best to them (India and Bangladesh). He is very energetic and he is bowling well. If he takes wickets for us in the final that will help us for sure.”
Here are the reactions from the cricket fraternity:
Shahid Afridi:
Michael Vaughan:
Kumar Sangakkara:
Dale Steyn:
Fawad Ahmed:
S Badrinath:
Anjum Chopra:
Derek Pringle:
Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download CricRocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more! 🚀☄️
