How the hell did Pakistan win the 2017 Champions Trophy? Even now the result defies rational analysis. Even the irrational doesn’t quite cu...
How the hell did Pakistan win the 2017 Champions Trophy? Even now the result defies rational analysis. Even the irrational doesn’t quite cut it. Yet there it was, on a mad, hot day at The Oval, right before our eyes. And they didn’t just win the thing. They annihilated the most complete team in the world.
They began the tournament in standard fashion, obliterated by India at Edgbaston to leave themselves needing to win four games on the bounce. After that one, they brought in an unknown domestic left-hander called Fakhar Zaman for his first hit in a Pakistan shirt. Naturally enough, Zaman – as one of three Pakistani debutants (no other team fielded one between them) – would smash 252 tournament runs.
A stirring win over South Africa followed, but against Sri Lanka they were all but gone, scavenging for lower-order runs when Sarfaraz Ahmed, their skipperkeeper, lobbed a dolly to Thisara Perera at mid-on, who promptly dropped it. Later that over saw another chance dropped. If either had been taken, Pakistan would have been out. Reprieved, Sarfaraz and Mohammad Amir put on 75 for the eighth wicket, to set up a semi-final with the form team, on their home patch. Naturally, England didn’t stand a chance.
All of which set up an incendiary clash with India, a fixture so volatile that it’s only ever played under ICC auspices. Pakistan came into the match having beaten India just twice in all ICC world tournaments. It’s not worth trying to explain how Jasprit Bumrah came to bowl his second no-ball of the tournament at the very moment that Zaman nicked it to the keeper. Nor worth investigating how Zaman luckily freewheeled to a maiden century in the most important match of his life, or how a team which had been struggling for runs merrily posted 338-4, with Bumrah going at over 7.5 an over. Nor is there much point analysing the first 12 overs of India’s reply, when Mohammad Amir nicked off Sharma the Great and Kohli the Greatest. India would lose by 180 runs. It’s still the most riotous result of the decade.
The backdrop to such games is unavoidable. As antipathy descends into bellicosity, it’s no longer worth trying to detach politics from Indo-Pak cricket. It’s all out there: following the appalling bombings in Kashmir in February 2018, the BCCI released a statement urging “the cricketing community to sever ties with countries from which terrorism emanates” leaving one wondering which countries, if any, would still be eligible to play.
There’s more. Earlier this year, India’s players fielded in camouflage military caps to show solidarity with India’s armed forces. The stance prompted a furious response from the Pakistan Cricket Board and forced the ICC to slap down what was seen as a political provocation. Meanwhile on social media, the tone adopted from o¢cial government o¢ces is often belligerently militaristic.
Since the devastating terror attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in 2009, Pakistan’s cricket team has been homeless. Only recently has the situation begun to improve. Zimbabwe toured in 2015, a world XI followed in 2017, and a second-string West Indies team stepped up last year. But before this winter, no sign of a Test match. Finally, after one aborted mission, it was confirmed that Sri Lanka – now assured of their players’ safety following the successful completion of a limited-overs series – would play two Tests, at Rawalpindi and Karachi, in December. The smooth passing of these games could yet herald a decade of renewal for the game’s great survivalists. Cricket needs them.
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| PAKISTAN CRICKET AMBUSH THE ESTABLISHMENT |
A stirring win over South Africa followed, but against Sri Lanka they were all but gone, scavenging for lower-order runs when Sarfaraz Ahmed, their skipperkeeper, lobbed a dolly to Thisara Perera at mid-on, who promptly dropped it. Later that over saw another chance dropped. If either had been taken, Pakistan would have been out. Reprieved, Sarfaraz and Mohammad Amir put on 75 for the eighth wicket, to set up a semi-final with the form team, on their home patch. Naturally, England didn’t stand a chance.
All of which set up an incendiary clash with India, a fixture so volatile that it’s only ever played under ICC auspices. Pakistan came into the match having beaten India just twice in all ICC world tournaments. It’s not worth trying to explain how Jasprit Bumrah came to bowl his second no-ball of the tournament at the very moment that Zaman nicked it to the keeper. Nor worth investigating how Zaman luckily freewheeled to a maiden century in the most important match of his life, or how a team which had been struggling for runs merrily posted 338-4, with Bumrah going at over 7.5 an over. Nor is there much point analysing the first 12 overs of India’s reply, when Mohammad Amir nicked off Sharma the Great and Kohli the Greatest. India would lose by 180 runs. It’s still the most riotous result of the decade.
The backdrop to such games is unavoidable. As antipathy descends into bellicosity, it’s no longer worth trying to detach politics from Indo-Pak cricket. It’s all out there: following the appalling bombings in Kashmir in February 2018, the BCCI released a statement urging “the cricketing community to sever ties with countries from which terrorism emanates” leaving one wondering which countries, if any, would still be eligible to play.
There’s more. Earlier this year, India’s players fielded in camouflage military caps to show solidarity with India’s armed forces. The stance prompted a furious response from the Pakistan Cricket Board and forced the ICC to slap down what was seen as a political provocation. Meanwhile on social media, the tone adopted from o¢cial government o¢ces is often belligerently militaristic.
Since the devastating terror attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in 2009, Pakistan’s cricket team has been homeless. Only recently has the situation begun to improve. Zimbabwe toured in 2015, a world XI followed in 2017, and a second-string West Indies team stepped up last year. But before this winter, no sign of a Test match. Finally, after one aborted mission, it was confirmed that Sri Lanka – now assured of their players’ safety following the successful completion of a limited-overs series – would play two Tests, at Rawalpindi and Karachi, in December. The smooth passing of these games could yet herald a decade of renewal for the game’s great survivalists. Cricket needs them.
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