Pakistan Perfection Smashes Hosts
England, the favourites and hosts of the ICC Champions Trophy, crashed out at the semi-final stage as a limp performance with bat and ball was punished with brutal efficiency by a phenomenal performance by Pakistan. How much of the result was down to Pakistan's brilliance and how much is down to England's poorness is up for debate, but this was a day where everything went right for one team and wrong for the other.
Bairstow and Root got England off to a strong start and despite the loss of Alex Hales for 13, they were cruising at 80-1 off 16 overs, which became 127-2 off 27 overs as Morgan took up the mantle when Bairstow holed out in the deep for 43. But from there, England imploded. Pakistan had been ramping up the pressure, slowing the run rate and their middle overs bowlers: Hafeez, Shadab and Hasan Ali were keeping it very tight. Hasan in particular was phenomenal again, taking 3-35 off his ten, removing Bairstow, Morgan and Stokes, whilst Shadab took 1-40, the crucial wicket of Joe Root.
The crucial factor for England was stagnation. Morgan scored 33 off 53, Root 46 off 56, and then even Stokes managed just 34 off 64 without scoring a single boundary. Stagnation built the pressure and the wickets tumbled, with none of Pakistan's bowlers even going at 5 runs per over, and England toiling to what seemed to be a below par 211. Whether they failed to adjust quick enough, Pakistan bowled really well or something drastic happened with the pitch, it's hard to quantify, but the pitch didn't do England the favours it looked like it might have, given how Pakistan bowled on it.
Whatever the case, England simply never got control of the innings, were totally unable to take wickets, and Pakistan made 211 look woefully inadequate, chasing it in 37.1 overs and losing just two wickets in the process. Mark Wood bowled quite well to apply some pressure, and Ball and Rashid were both solid, but Plunkett, Stokes and Moeen were never in the game, and England simply never got close to squeezing Pakistan the way that they had squeezed England.
And part of that is due to some excellent batting from Fakhar Zaman and Azhar Ali who, unburdened slightly by the slight nature of the chase, were able to settle and score runs more quickly and were able to release the pressure when they needed to. Although neither made a huge score: Fakhar stumped off Moeen for 57 and Azhar bowled by Ball for 76, the half-centuries that they made were more than enough to see Pakistan well over the line.
For Pakistan this was a huge performance and a huge result. Going into this tournament they'd been all but written off, and that was magnified when India thrashed them in their opening game. But since then they've been able to bowl first and reduce their opposition to meager totals, which has released the pressure on their batting order whilst chasing. And against England pressure was the key, and they were magnificent.
As for England however, this was a maddening blow. The team who has spent two years improving their ODI game, to the point where they were arguably favourites for the tournament, even ahead of India. who performed sensationally in the group stages, wiping out two of the best teams in the world in Australia and New Zealand, had a bad day at the office at the worst possible time. But whilst it's a bitter disappointment, England have to still accept that they've made massive progress over the last two years and keep improving ready for the World Cup in 2019.
Oh and maybe sort out this pitch nonsense because we shouldn't be having controversy over the pitch in an international semi-final.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Nadal is the king of clay. Yet again.
- Hamilton slashed the gap to Vettel. Great drive.
- A second defeat for the Lions. Dreadful tour so far.
- England aren't that good at football. Discuss.
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