Pakistan crush England to storm into final

Cardiff. — Pakistan advanced to the International Cricket Council Champions Trophy final on the back of a superb bowling performance and a century opening stand, as they crushed England by eight wickets in their semi-final clash in Cardiff yesterday.

Paceman Hassan Ali was the pick of the Pakistan attack as he picked up 3-35 in a high-class exhibition of fast bowling while he was ably supported by fellow seamers Junaid Khan (2-42) and debutant Ramman Raees (2-44) while there was also three run outs during England’s innings as the tournament hosts were bowled out for just 211 with one ball of their innings remaining.

The opening pair of Azhar Ali and Fakhar Zaman then put on a 118-run opening stand as Pakistan cruised to 215-2 off just 37.1 overs.

Pakistan will now play eight India or Bangladesh in the final at the Oval in London on Sunday, June 18. Pakistan won the toss and elected to field first on a slow and abrasive pitch which saw the England batsman battle to find any fluidity.

Joe Root top scored for the hosts with 46 off 56 balls while Jonny Bairstow weighed in with 43. Hassan’s three victims saw him move to the top of the tournament’s wicket-taking list with 10.

England made a solid start as they reached 128-2 but they suffered a collapse to lose eight wickets for the addition of just 83 runs. Bairstow and fellow opener Alex Hales (13) put on 34 runs for the first wicket before Hales slapped a delivery from Raees to Babar Azam in the covers.

Root and Bairstow looked relatively comfortable in adding 46 for the second wicket before Bairstow, who had got bogged down, top edged a delivery from Hassan and was caught at deep square leg.

Eoin Morgan (33) and Root, who was the one England batsman to play fluently on the pitch, then added 48 runs for the third wicket before Root top edged a delivery from leg-spinner Shadab Khan through to keeper Sarfraz Ahmed.

England then went into free-fall with even the normally aggressive Ben Stokes battling to score as his 34 runs came off 64 deliveries with no boundaries. — MWP.