Focussing on offensive and élan gained green shirts’ famous victory
It was a long time coming, nineteen years to be exact, since the ICC Champions Trophy was introduced in 1998 that Pakistani cricketers proudly held aloft the prestigious trophy which is rated second only to the World Cup. Of course the icing on the cake lay in achieving this belated win by overcoming favourites India, reversing a formidable 13-2 Indian record in ICC sponsored tournaments. Humbled by their arch-rivals in the opening game, Pakistanis had the last laugh, and they are still giggling twenty four hours later, by beating them with an even bigger margin, so repaying the ‘favour’ with a little interest. And in the process they showed the reportedly more than 650 million global viewers the Pakistanis’ true mettle and character, confident and unfazed even after years of internal strife that had starved them of domestic cricket since 2009.
Pakistan squad, thanks to the firepower of newcomer Fakhar Zaman, shed their long- practiced but failed trench-warfare strategy of the first ten overs, by going over to the offensive from the word go. Offensive, offensive, always the offensive, was the winning watchword in the final. True the batsmen rode their luck, but then fortune favours the brave. They also played sensible, responsible cricket, taking singles and rotating the strike to confound the Indian bowlers. And after hoisting up a formidable but gettable 338/4 on a placid track, given the powerful Indian batting line up of IPL veterans, Mohammad Amir bowled with verve and sustained accuracy to remove the highly rated trio of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli for the grand total of 33 within 10 overs, deadly blows from which the men in blue never recovered. They folded for 158 in just 30.4 overs and the Pakistanis’ victory was overwhelming and sweet, a comeback from the void, 25 years after the 1992 World Cup glory. Man of the tournament Hassan Ali did Pakistan proud by also winning the Golden Ball award for most wickets. It was a heroic team effort, through which self-esteem and self-belief is reborn.
