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| Pakistan team group photo after winning the Champions Trophy |
Oval, London: Pakistan, the eight number ranking team gave a big surprise by beating defending champions India in the Finals of Champions Trophy.
India, the hot favorite and defending champions, won the toss and put Pakistan into the bat first. Taking the advantage Pakistani openers, Fakhar Zaman and Azhar Ali played important role in batting and help in building a huge target of 239 run.
On the other hand Muhammad Aamir played key role in breaking up the solid Indian batting by taking 3 main players in initial 5 overs.
Analysis
What went wrong with India and why Number Eight Pakistan team were able to beat World Number One team India. In my opinion few points are worth mentioning,
Over Confidence: Indian were all over confidence in their approach and already believed that they are the champions which led them to collapse.
Toss Factor: Despite knowing that Pakistan site is weak in batting and their power lies in bowling Indian Captain Virat Kohli invited Pakistan to bat first, astonishingly it was Pakistan's choice and in the end winning of toss added in the defeat of India.
Poor Bowling/Fielding: Over confident Indians bowled poorly and gave away extra runs by not only bowling wide and No Balls, but missed two certain run out chances. Although they got out Fakhar Zaman but luckily for Pakistan it was No ball, once again poor show by Indians and Fakhar scored his maiden century. Once the openers settled the pressure started to buildup on Indian which could be seen in their show of poor fielding, because they were expecting to take Pakistan under 200 runs.
Batting Factor: India has been relying on its three batsman through out the series and they performed best by scoring highest runs against each team, and these three scored over 900 runs in the tournament, but it also brought havoc when these top three batsman collapsed in initial five overs. The damage was so immense that recovery was impossible, thanks to Muhammad Aamir (Pakistan) who sent them back to pavilion.
Realistically India was always under pressure because they were defending the title, whereas Pakistan has nothing to lose as they were number eight team in the tournament, but one thing was obvious that they were resolved and played as a one unit and showed the world that they can bring havoc to any team if they work hard. Despite of no international cricket in Pakistan (thanks to India) there seems to be a lot of emerging talent.
Recommendations: In the end i would suggest that India and Pakistan should play regularly to give wining chance to cricket. It would also help to defuse tension among the two nations and would promote harmony and peace in the region.