If you’ve been living under a rock, may not know that the ICC Champions Trophy (the slightly less important cousin of the Cricket World Cup) is currently on in England. We’ve had five matches so far in the eight nation tournament (divided into two groups of 4 teams each). Here’s what’s been happening so far:
The results have been largely consistent with expectations. England beat Bangladesh in the first match. The second match between Australia and New Zealand was rained out, but it was the Kiwis who were in the dominant position when that happened. The South Africans beat the Sri Lankans in match no 3.
Seemingly after eons, we witnessed an India Pakistan cricket match and multitudes on either side of the border were glued to the action with bated breath.
India batted first; a masterly performance from each of the batsmen: openers Rohit Sharma (91) and Shikhar Dhawan (68) got the team off to a flier. Skipper Virat Kohli remained not out with 81 off 68. It was Yuvraj Singh’s 53 off 32 and Hardik Pandya’s explosive 20 off just 6 balls that helped India cross the 300 mark and rack up a total of 319 in 48 overs.
It was expected that the in-form Indians would beat the Pakistanis, but few predicted how the Pakistanis would simply buckle under and give up. Rain interrupted again and the revised target was unattainable for India's arch rivals. The Pakistani batsmen were dismissed easily and India won by a massive 124 runs. Yuvraj Singh was declared the man of the match.
Pakistan's dismal performance was mourned for former stars (Shahid Afridi)
Such as Imran Khan, arguably the best Pakistani all rounder ever and the man behind Pakistan's only ever world cup victory.
Yesterday's faceoff between Australia and Bangladesh was also rained out. Bangladesh had made a modest 182 from 44.3 of their 50 overs. Australia were 83 for 1 in their 16th over when play was called off.
Do you have something interesting you would like to share? Write to us at [email protected]
