The most anticipated final came to an
unexpected ending on Sunday. The Indian team is in this race as defenders of
the cup, demonstrated a wonderful performance all through the championship and
managed to enter the finals against Pakistan. The Pakistani team, though
stumbled along the way, entered the finals.
India stood in the limelight throughout the series and had been the favorite all along. The hopes of every Indian went up as India reached the finals with a massive win over Bangladesh. But then, the unexpected happened. With the wonderful performance of Pakistan team, the Indian team fumbled and lost its way giving up the cup to Pakistan.
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| Image courtesy:ICC |
India opting to bowl first, had failed to keep the Pakistani Batsmen in check from the start. With the opening batsmen performing at their best, the first wicket India could take was of Azhar Ali. Fakhar Zaman who opened with Azhar Ali went on to make a century along with Babar Azam who helped him in the way by making a 46 himself. Mohammed Hafeez who came after an early dismissal of Shoaib Malik added another 57 runs to the Pakistan scoreboard leaving the score at 338.
The Indian team did not have a good start with batting either. The dismissal of Rohit Sharma at 0 was in fact a big blow to the Indian team which became worse with the dismissals of Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan at 5 runs and 21 runs respectively. The team came back to its feet, with the 76 runs from Hardik Pandya which gave a glimmer of hope. But soon it vanished with the unexpected run out of him. The team collapsed after that for just 158 runs, submitting Pakistan a huge victory of 180 runs.
India though full of confidence with the previous victories failed to perform with the same till the end. Pakistan’s entry into the finals was an unexpected one which the team made a very good use of. The Pakistani team gave the performance of their life in the India vs Pakistan Finals and totally deserved the trophy. Though we mourn the loss of India, we congratulate Pakistani team with our heart for the victory.
