Pakistan make it look all too easy

COLLAPSE: ENGLAND BOWLED OUT FOR A PALTRY 211

Hosts suffer humiliating loss after winning all their group games. Cardiff

Pakistan delivered an inspired all-round performance to rout a ragged England team by eight wickets in a one-sided Champions Trophy semifinal yesterday.

Pakistan bowled and fielded tightly to restrict the hosts to a paltry total of 211 all out and the lowest-ranked team in the tournament knocked off the runs in style with a massive 12.5 overs to spare.

It was a major disappointment for England, who won all three group matches and had beaten Pakistan in 12 of their last 14 one-day internationals.

They collapsed, however, on a sluggish pitch from 128/2 in sunny conditions which normally favour batsmen and their bowlers failed to repair the damage as Fakhar Zaman and Azhar Ali shared a stand of 118 to lead Pakistan to their target.

“One thing we didn’t do was adapt to conditions, which I thought Pakistan did extremely well,” England captain Eoin Morgan said.

“Full credit to them, they outplayed us on this wicket. 211 wasn’t a good score. 250/270 would have been.”

Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed won the toss and England openers Alex Hales and Jonny Bairstow, replacing the outof-form Jason Roy, made a solid enough start, scoring 34 runs before the first wicket fell.

Hitting boundaries proved difficult, however, as England didn’t manage a single six and none of their batsman made fifty.

In contrast the Pakistani opening pair of Azhar Ali and Fakhar Zaman made it look all too easy.

Fakhar hit Mark Wood for the first six of the match in the opening over of Pakistan’s innings and he and Azhar played some delightful strokes in a fluent opening partnership of 118 runs.

“Credit goes to the bowlers and the batters who finished it very well,” Sarfraz said. “We adapted to the conditions, we knew if we restricted them we could easily chase it down.

“Every game is a knockout game and I told my boys to play their game and not worry about the result.”

India play Bangladesh in the second semi-final in Birmingham today, with the final on Sunday. – Reuters, AFP

Picture: AFP CHIEF DESTROYER. Pakistan’s Hasan Ali celebrates taking the wicket of England’s Eoin Morgan during yesterday’s ICC Champions Trophy semifinal in Cardiff. Hasan also took the wickets of Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow to end with figures of 3/35 in his 10...