Pakistan: Azhar Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Imad Wasim, Fahim Ashraf, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Junaid Khan. It was an unexpectedly one-sided semifinal as two-time finalist England continue their quest for a global 50-over title in any tournament.
Injured England bowler Chris Woakes on Test Match Special: “Pakistan opted to bowl first, which we all thought was the wrong decision as we thought the pitch would deteriorate and become harder to score on”. “I think we’ve started brilliantly”, said Morgan. We continue to learn, everything we did was calculated, but Pakistan had played on the wicket previously and that helped.
England is now in fabulous form and Pakistan need to do something extra ordernary to win 1st semi-final match at Cardiff on Wednesday because English team is way better than Sri Lanka. By the time he was done, he had broken the back of England’s batting, snuffing out Bairstow, Morgan and Ben Stokes to jump to the top of the tournament charts. Jake Ball and Adil Rashid picked up the wickets of the two Pakistani openers.
“Pakistan can beat any team in the competition on their day so we’re preparing for their best”, the top-order batsman added.
Medium-fast Rumman Raees took 2/44 off nine overs on an impressive ODI debut, being called up late to replace Mohammad Amir.
Now back in the side after a ban and jail term in a British prison for spot-fixing, Amir is becoming an ever more important member of the Pakistan team and Arthur said: “He showed what we know he can do with the bat yesterday (Monday)”.
The last time these two teams met in a semi-final was during the 1989 World Cup which Pakistan went on to win by six wickets. “Obviously he’s our main bowler”. He can bat and bowl, he is a good batsman and we were confident when he was there.
But Ahmed wasn’t taking anything away from his bowlers’ performance on Wednesday. “Players also deserve credit for motivating themselves and making a comeback in the tournament”, he said. “They’re a really, really good one-day unit with no apparent weaknesses”.
“One innings he did play for us won us a series, against New Zealand, a match-winning knock up at Durham two years ago sums him up”, Middlesex left-hander Morgan said.
Skipper Morgan then joined Root and the duo batted with objective to bring up the hundred in 21.4 overs. He has also taken 123 wickets in 42 first-class matches.
Just as important for Pakistan is the significance of Hasan’s dismissals.
Instead, it was a case of coming unstuck in conditions which made setting a defendable total no easy task – despite England’s handy start after being put in. The hosts could manage only seven fours in their final 30 overs and not a single six throughout. He is No. 7 in the ICC all-rounder rankings but had an all-round miserable game.
Arthur tried to explain what it is like to be the coach of Pakistan – a team which has the reputation of being consistently inconsistent.
Then they defeated Sri Lanka to reach the Champions Trophy semi-finals.