2017 ICC Champions Trophy: India Vs Pakistan – Five Turning Points Of The Game

Nov 2, 2023 at 3:35 PM

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2017 ICC Champions Trophy: India Vs Pakistan – Five Turning Points Of The Game

When Virat Kohli won the toss before the start of the final of ICC Champions Trophy, fans thought that its game for India, keeping the number of wins that team have won while chasing the target but this wasn’t the case when Indian team put itself behind a total.

Chasing a mountainous target of 339, the defending champions were bundled out on a mere total of 158, to lose the game in a way which no one ever expected. They couldn’t give a competition to Pakistan, which was the biggest highlighting point in the loss.

The game could have tilted in India’s favour had they grabbed the chances from the start but it didn’t happen and defending champions lost the game.

Here are few of points where game turned in favour of Pakistan –

Bumrah’s Over The Line

The Indian team had never played against Fakhar Zaman nor did the batsman had faced Indian bowlers. However, Jasprit Bumrah soon got rid of him and was celebrating the wicket without even knowing that he had overstepped the line.

As a result, soon the celebrations were put to rest and Zaman punished Indian bowlers later, by not giving any chance to India from where they could have made a comeback. Apart from sharing 128 runs with Azhar Ali, he played an inning of 114, which include 111 bonus runs. The number of runs made by him in the second attempt are enough to tell that how India dropped the game from their hands.

The middle Strong

When Pakistan lost the first wicket on 128, it was a chance for the Indian bowlers to affect one or two more wickets and keep Pakistan under check but this wasn’t the case, as young Babar Azam played with utmost maturity and did not play a loose shot.

This partnership played a vital role in Pakistan posting a big total, as Zaman got a free hand during the partnership and scored 58 runs during this period out of 72 runs shared. This was only possible when Babar showed the trust that he could do the job if in case Zaman gets out whilst playing freely.

The Strong Finish To The Innings –

On June 4th, when India defeated Pakistan in their first league stage game of the ICC Champions Trophy, everyone hailed Yuvraj Singh for his innings of 53* off just 32 balls, which saw an increase in run-rate and hence, defending champions could post a total of 319.

Pakistan needed an innings of that type and Mohammad Hafeez was their man for the job. One of the experienced batsmen of Pakistan emulated Yuvraj Singh and scored 57* off just 37 balls to lift the run-rate, which made the big difference in the end, as chasing a target of 300+ automatically puts a team under pressure and Hafeez’s innings was that thing which put India under pressure.

Amir’s Ferocious Spell

To win this game and chase down a mammoth total of 339, India needed a solid start but it was not the case, courtesy to a ferocious spell from Mohammad Amir who dismissed Rohit Sharma in the very first over of the innings to dent India’s chase.

A wicket of captain Virat Kohli and in-form Shikhar Dhawan further dented team India and oodles of wickets followed, which confirmed a win for Pakistan right in the first 10 overs of the game.

Pandya’s Efforts In Vain

On a day when Kapil Dev played an innings of 175*, 34 years back in World Cup 1983 against Zimbabwe, Pandya came in with a mission but a silly run out marked an end to Pandya’s innings.

It was looking like Hardik will win this game on his own, as he was smashing each and every bowler for boundaries. Runs were coming at will for Hardik and there was an assumption that Hardik might win this one alone but after the runout, it was the end for India and the defending champions were dismissed after just adding up six runs more to the total, to hand Pakistan Champions Trophy, a first time for them in history.

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