Player of the Match
Player of the Match
2111dThe Report by Danyal Rasool

Sarfraz sees shaky Pakistan into semi-finals

Pakistan huffed and puffed through a chase of 237 but they made it in the end thanks to the composure of their captain

Match Centre

Statistics

Best performances - Batsmen

N Dickwella
N Dickwella
73(86) 4x4 - 0x6
Control %77%
  • Productive Shot
  • flick
  • 15 runs
  • 0x4 - 0x6
10 11 8 14 13 3 0 14
Sarfaraz Ahmed
Sarfaraz Ahmed
61(79) 5x4 - 0x6
Control %91%
  • Productive Shot
  • flick
  • 16 runs
  • 1x4 - 0x6
11 5 11 6 10 4 7 7

Best performances - Bowlers

Junaid Khan
Junaid Khan
O10
M3
R40
W3
Eco4.00
RHB
OFFLEG
1W
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF
1W1W
Hasan Ali
Hasan Ali
O10
M0
R43
W3
Eco4.30
RHB
OFFLEG
3W
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF

Scorer: Sanjay Murari | Commentator: Varun Shetty

6.45pm That's it from us today. What. A. Match. Sporadic displays of awesome skill, tucked in between long periods of ordinary cricket - that's the formula for an exciting cricket game. Two groups of players got it right today. And we hope you enjoyed how we called it. On behalf of Shashank and Sanjay - good night, folks. See you for the semi-final.

Semi-final line-up:
1: England v Pakistan at Cardiff, June 14
2: Bangladesh v India at Edgbaston, June 15

Sunny: "This predictably unpredictable Pakistan team has once again unpredictably gone on to win the match after a predictable collapse with some unpredictable batting from Amir. Great to see the lower order perform.

ABAE: "These situations are probably why Sarfaraz bats so low... Thank God they pulled through today. "

Sabbir Chowdhury: "This Champions Trophy has seen some of the memorable partnerships in ODI cricket. Today, we've seen a wonderful partnership which saw them home. Formidable!"

MIKE RAM: "Have to spare a thought for Malinga a Champion for SL. He had 3 dropped catches off his bowling and a few misfields. Had SL taken their catches they could have gone thru to the Semis. "

Sharmalie Wickr: "In all honesty, it was a game of who played less worse! My team just did not show up. #disappointed"

saamai: "2 flawed teams played a super flawed match. In the end the experience (being flawed for longer time) prevailed."

Ali Raza: "Thank God it's over. Lots of finger nails must be hurting. Ew!"

Mathews: A see-saw kind of a game. Credit should go to Pakistan. They held their nerves and are deserved winners. it was a bit of a funny wicket. We hadn't got the runs on the board but we knew we could defend this. And the bowlers did their job, but we didn't hold on to our catches. Proud of the boys. Even though we only had 236 to defend, they gave it their all. Unfortunately, we missed a few chances. In a big tournament like this, they fought hard an inexperienced team. I'm proud of them.

Sarfraz: First of all, thanks to the Almighty. I can't believe it. Thanks to Amir, he played really well. I jus told him to play his game and not to worry about the score. That if we took it to the 40th over we would win. Drop catches are part of the game. Allah helped us and that's why Pakistan won today.

Sarfraz is the Man of the Match.

6.30pm A yelling, screaming Sarfraz sprints towards Mohammad Amir and embraces him. Mickey Arthur, who was summoning all his spirituality for the last hour, leaps off his seat in the pavilion. We don't even know what Malinga's face looks like right now, but that won't be a hard guess, will it? Thisara Perera will be a haunted man. How do you live down something like this? A remarkable comeback from Pakistan where there never should have been one. But you can argue that Sri Lanka should never have been in the game after their own collapse. It was their tail that stretched the score and it was Pakistan's that snatched the victory.

44.5
4
Malinga to Sarfaraz Ahmed, FOUR, he's done it! Sarfraz Ahmed has huffed and puffed and pushed and fought - and he hasn't done it perfectly - but he has dragged his team into the semi-final. The slower ball is dropped short and wide outside off stump and he waits for it to come on before ramping it to the third man boundary
44.4
2
Malinga to Sarfaraz Ahmed, 2 runs, slower ball, low full toss at knee height, calmly tucked to bisect deep square and fine leg
44.3
2
Malinga to Sarfaraz Ahmed, 2 runs, slower yorker, met on the full, flicked to deep square's right and back for the second
44.2
1
Malinga to Mohammad Amir, 1 run, back of a length at off stump, gets on top of the bounce, opens the face to drop this to point's right

Forlorn, stretching his hamstring, is Malinga. Those eyes have seen happier days

44.2
1w
Malinga to Mohammad Amir, 1 wide, bouncer...oh and it's too short, this is a wide

Farhad Aslam: "On 60th birthday of the greatest street fighter in cricket, another street fighter from Karachi is showing the glimpses of Miandad."

44.1
1
Malinga to Sarfaraz Ahmed, 1 run, overpitched inswinger at the toes, clipped to deep square

Malinga. Back for one last heartbreak? Silly mid-on in place.

Captain leads to victory

0

No. of instances of a Pakistan captain scoring 50+ in a successful chase in ICC ODI tournaments - Sarfraz is the first. Prev best: Imran Khan's 44 v NZ in 1992 SF.

Malik's milestone

250

No. of ODIs for Shoaib Malik. He becomes the 10th player to appear in 250 ODIs for Pakistan.

Pacers' day

5

Instances of Pak fast bowlers taking all 10 wickets in an ODI, including today. Also, this is the first time since 2013 4 Pak bowlers took 2+ wickets in an ODI.

Brilliant Junaid

2013

Last time a Pakistan bowler delivered 3 or more maidens in an ODI, before Junaid Khan in this game. Afridi had bowled that many in his figures of 7/12 against WI.

Quick wickets

6

Runs for which SL lost 4 wickets - 4th to 7th - from 161/3 to 167/7, for 23 balls. Earlier they had lost their 2nd and 3rd wickets in a span of 3 balls.

Consistent Dickwella

3

No. of fifties for Niroshan Dickwella in last six ODI innings, including today. He has gone scored 25 or more in 6 of his last 7 innings.

Looks promising

5/45

Faheem Ashraf's figures in his last list-A game, before making ODI debut today. Today he got Chandimal dismissed for duck in his 3rd over.

Advantage Pakistan

9-1

Pak's win-loss record against Sri Lanka in ICC ODI tournaments, before this game. The only time they lost was in 2002 Champions Trophy at Premadasa.

Long ago

2002

Last time Pakistan and Sri Lanka met in ODIs outside Asia, before today. Overall, Pak have a 14-3 win-loss record in the encounters outside Asia.

ICC Champions Trophy (ICC KnockOut)

Group A
TeamMWLPTNRR
ENG33061.045
BAN31130
AUS3012-0.992
NZ3021-1.058
Group B
TeamMWLPTNRR
IND32141.37
PAK3214-0.68
SA31220.167
SL3122-0.798