Pakistan fell well short of target after the Indian batsman had piled up a massive total.

By Abdullah Ansari (4th June, 2017)

In the lead up to this much awaited fixture, all the talk appeared to be about Pakistan being the underdog which transferred all the pressure onto India in the rivals' first match of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. Sarfraz Ahmed insisted that Pakistan have nothing to lose due to their #8 ranking, while Virat Kohli opined that Pakistan is a team that can surprise the opposition.

The stakes for an India-Pakistan clash are always high. When the number of matches that they two teams play are reduced to mainly tournaments, the level of anticipation increases. Such was the state of supporters on both sides ahead of this immense fixture.

Fast forward to 10 am on Sunday at Birmingham and it all looked like it was going to plan for Pakistan. The Pakistan captain, Sarfraz Ahmed, won the toss and had no hesitation in opting to bowl first. He announced that Faheem Ashraf had been benched from the twelve that the Pakistan management had nominated on Saturday. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli calmly announced that India had relegated highly rated offie Ravichandran Ashwin to the bench.

The Indian openers strolled out to the middle, looking calm but the nerves were surely there. Mohammad Amir bowled a superb over upfront, with Rohit Sharma playing and missing thrice in the first four balls. A slightly strange decision to open the bowling with Imad Wasim followed; the slow left-armer was economical but failed to provide any threat to the opening batsmen and it was more of the same to follow from Amir after an excellent first over. The partnership built up steadily but just before the ten-over mark, the first rain delay arrived.

After the resumption of play, the limitations of Pakistan’s plan of restricting the batsmen began to show as Wahab Riaz came into the attack and was taken for runs straight away. Rohit got to a well-paced half-century soon after while Shikhar Dhawan followed suit as the batsmen went on the attack. Dhawan soon perished as he hit a full toss from Shadab Khan straight to a fielder in the deep. Sarfraz strangely opted to persist with the spinners against the dangerous newcomer, Kohli but soon reverted to Amir and Hasan after a few overs. Rain once again stopped play with India at 173/1.

The delay this time was a longer one and accordingly, the match was shortened to 48 overs a side. Pakistan soon got their second wicket as Rohit was found short of his crease after some good work by Sarfraz behind the stumps with the opener falling just nine short of a hundred. Yuvraj came out to bat looking like a man on a mission but soon gave a chance to the opposition; however, Hasan Ali grassed the simple catch. That opened the floodgates as the veteran went hell for leather against the Pakistan bowlers with Hasan and Wahab taking much of the damage at the death after Amir went off injured. Kohli joined the party as well as 72 runs were taken off the last four overs with Hardik Pandya contributing in the last over, helping India to 319/3 in 48 overs.

Pakistan’s chase seemed to begin on a decent note but they were always behind the game. Just five overs in, a long rain delay came to the fore once again and the target was reduced to 289 in 41 overs after the resumption. Azhar Ali fought hard, looking for the boundaries but Ahmed Shehzad struggled and was dismissed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a painstaking 12. Pakistan’s big hope, Babar Azam came to the crease but failed to achieve fluency in his short stay, eventually perishing to Yadav with an uncharacteristically poor shot, cutting a short and wide delivery to Jadeja at backward point.

The required run-rate only increased from there on as Azhar struggled after the powerplay while Mohammad Hafeez took his time to get going. Azhar eventually got to his fifty, the only Pakistan player to do so in the match, compared to four Indians but was caught soon off Jadeja, sweeping. Shoaib Malik came out with the right intent but the running between the wickets left something to be desired and he was soon run out after an excellent direct hit by the extremely active Jadeja.

It became of procession after that as Hafeez first fell, caught for a 43-ball 33 then Imad Wasim fell for a first ball duck. Sarfraz didn’t last long while Shadab Khan showed a bit of fight, but it was all but over already. Amir and Hasan soon fell and Wahab wasn’t fit to bat, meaning Pakistan were all out for an extremely disappointing 164, losing by 124 runs on the D/L method.

The encounter truly felt like #3 versus #8. Men versus boys. India came prepared and executed their plans, Pakistan looked like they had no plans. In the end, it was a massive win for the Indians and they look well set to qualify for the next round. Next up for them, it’s Sri Lanka while Pakistan will have to contend with the #1 ODI side in the world, South Africa. It’s looking grim for the Men in Green.

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