Pakistan secure a comfortable win over arch rivals India to lift maiden Champions trophy , winning by a huge margin of 180 runs.
India won the toss and elected to field , a decision Kohli would regret at the end of the day. Winning the toss was the only thing that went India’s way. The Pakistan openers went about their job right from the first ball . There was some early joy for the Indians as Fakhar was caught behind but the joy was shortlived as it turned out to be a no ball . It was that kind of a day for Pakistan where everything went right for them.
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The openers built a great foundation for the middle order batsmen to express themselves. They put on a stand of 128 for the first wicket before a slight misunderstanding resulted in Azhar Ali getting run out , the only blemish in Pakistan’s innings.The other opener Fakhar Zaman went on to score a sensational century in only his fourth ODI innings , that too against India in the final of an ICC event . The other batsmen chipped in with valuable runs too. Babar Azam scored 46 while Hafeez made a vital contribution of 57 of just 37 balls . Pakistan went onto score a mammoth 338-4 giving India a very stiff target to chase down.
Before this game the top three Indian batsmen namely Rohit Dhawan and Kohli had scored 867 runs among them . So India were depending a lot on the top three to chase down the score. However that did not prove to be the case as India got off to the worst possible start as they lost Rohit Sharma off the third ball of the innings thanks to some beautiful bowling by Amir. Amir went on to bowl one of the spells of his life as he removed both Kohli and Dhawan ,the former being dropped at slip but caught off the very next ball . Yuvraj and Dhoni had a huge responsibility on their shoulders as they slowly built a partnership.
Yuvraj was the next to fall and was followed by Dhoni to the dressing room . While Yuvraj was out lbw , Dhoni was caught at deep mid wicket mistiming his pull . Indian hopes were all but gone when Hardik Pandya and Kedhar Jadhav were in the middle . Jadhav was caught behing off Shadab Khan . This brought Jadeja to the middle. It was then the Pandya show that put Pakistan in a little discomfort . He batted with such confidence and authority and cleared the ropes at will. He targeted the spinners and showed some quality hitting of the cricket ball.
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He looked in such great form that he would single handedly take India to victory . He reached his fifty of just 32 balls hitting Shadab for three consecutive sixes. However it was just that kind of a day for India where nothing went right for them. Pandya became run out in a mix up with Jadeja and was clearly furious as he made his way back to the pavilion carrying with him the hopes of a whole nation. The bowlers then cleaned up the Indian tail as they went onto win by a huge margin of 180 runs.
Fakhar Zaman was adjudged the man of the match for his brilliant century scoring 114 off just 106 balls.
