India and Pakistan rarely meet in a ICC tournament final. After the 2007 World T20 final in South Africa, it was the second time in the history of their rivalry that they made it to the finals of 2017 ICC Champions Trophy at The Oval in England on this day (June 18) five years ago. I was fortunate enough to see this game with my younger son Sahil and was looking forward to a blockbuster game.
India had started as huge favourites going into the final for many reasons. First, they had beaten Pakistan in the league stage at Manchester easily and all their big guns Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli were firing with the bat. Pakistan had come from behind - making it to the finals beating South Africa, Sri Lanka and then tournament favourites England in the semi-finals. But they had to get past hot favourites India who were riding high.
A capacity crowd of 30,000 had thronged the stadium with fans from both teams well in time to see the big game. On a fresh wicket, India’s captain Kohli won the toss and decided to put Pakistan into bat and Jasprit Bumrah almost struck in his second over getting Fakhar Zaman when just on three but as history was destined to be made, Bumrah had overstepped and Zaman got the reprieve.
This was his first game against India and his fourth international game and boy, how he made India pay for that error. He scored 114 off 106 balls, his maiden hundred that too against India and Pakistan got to 338, thanks to a late flourish by Mohammed Hafeez who scored a quickfire 57 of 37 balls.
A target of 339 was a daunting one in a final, but India had the batting till number eight and conditions were good to bat. However, Mohammed Aamir had other ideas as he ripped out India’s fab three - Rohit, Kohli and Dhawan with magnificent swing and seam movement and broke India’s back. India never recovered from the early blows of Amir and were bowled out for just 158 - giving Pakistan a thumping win by 180 runs.
The celebration in Pakistan went on for days and I remember interviewing captain Sarfaraz Ahmed a few days after the game. Safraraz said that he still gets goosebumps for that memorable win and the reception they got in Pakistan was unbelievable with thousands of people thronging below his home to get a glimpse of him when the team returned home.
Not sure when India and Pakistan would clash again in a major final, but this is one win Pakistan would savour and India would like to forget.
- Cricket enthusiast Anis Sajan is the Vice Chairman of Danube Group
