The ICC Champions Trophy finale had not only glued the Indians and Pakistanis to their TV sets, but also other countries’ nationals for the epic cricket war. As the Pakistani players laid a score of 338/4, the Indians felt a little disheartened as their dream of taking the Champions trophy faded.
The result was as expected by most cricket enthusiasts; India was defeated by their arch-rivals by 180 runs. It was quite similar to their last global ODI tournament win in the 1992 World Cup.
Fakhar Zaman played a major role in this win, scoring 114 off 106 balls and sending the Team Indian back to pavilion in just 30.3 overs with the support of Mohammad Amir. Fakhar paired with Azhar Ali on the pitch created magic as the opening batsmen.
Their proud coach Mickey Arthur said, “I’ve had five semi-finals with South Africa and never got to a final. I got to one final with Pakistan and eventually got a medal, so that’s fantastic, but the credit goes to the players.”
Indian captain Virat Kohli was too impressed with their performance on field and said, “They [Pakistan] made us make those mistakes because of the way they were bowling and the way they applied the pressure in the field as well, and we have no hesitations or shame to admit that we could not play our best game today.” –News Source
