Cricket: Pakistan’s “remarkable” triumph

“Twenty-five years after Imran Khan’s cornered tigers stunned the world by winning the World Cup, Pakistan were at it again,” said Paul Newman in the Daily Mail. In the Champions Trophy final at the Oval, they “demolished” their arch-rivals India by 180 runs to pull off a “remarkable” triumph. When Pakistan “scraped into the tournament”, ranked bottom of the eight teams competing, few expected them to progress beyond the group stage. And they got off to a terrible start: thrashed by India in their opening match, they were “on the brink of elimination”. In just two weeks, however, they were transformed from “also-rans to worthy champions”. One of the most watched sporting events in history, with some 360 million viewers, this match will go down as a “cricketing upset” for the ages. There were “great stories everywhere”, said Mike Atherton in The Times. Playing in just his fourth one-day international (ODI), opening batsman Fakhar Zaman led the charge with a “swashbuckling” century. And when it was India’s turn to bat, fast bowler Mohammad Amir proved “devastating”, dismissing three players – including Virat Kohli, the world’s top ODI batsman. As a teenager, Amir had been tipped to become “one of the greats”, yet that promise was cut short when he was given a five-year ban for taking money to bowl no-balls. But he returned to the sport in 2015, and is once again playing with great “menace”. Credit, too, must go to “captain’s captain” Sarfaraz Ahmad for transforming the team, and above all to Player of the Tournament Hasan Ali for his “waspish” bowling. Pakistan can’t match the resources of India or England, said Scyld Berry in The Daily Telegraph. But in some ways, they have managed to turn that to their advantage. Their batsmen “pick up a bat and grip it as they like, without coaches telling them to use their leading elbow”, and this gives them an unusual style that’s often hard to play against. And growing up with grassless pitches, which offer little bounce, their bowlers learn to make the ball swing dangerously.

For England, it was yet another disappointing tournament, said Vic Marks in The Observer. At long last, they had got together “most of the right players, the right captain and the right outlook”. But after winning their three group games convincingly, they lost their semi-final to Pakistan by a “stunning” eight wickets. The batsmen are to blame, said Berry. They’re “very good at hitting” the ball, racking up high scores in the right conditions. But most of them struggle to think on their feet, and fail to cope with slow or turning pitches – and that’s why they’re so inconsistent. Until they revise their “strategy and personnel”, they won’t have what it takes to win a trophy.