Pakistan’s Fakhar Zaman scored 57 runs while Azhar Ali scored 76.
Pakistan road to the semi-final began with their first century partnership between Fakahr Zaman and Azhar Ali. The 118-run stand between Fakhar Zaman and Azhar Ali was the perfect ingredient to chase down a tricky total of 211 as it allayed fears of any batting collapse and took Pakistan to the cusp of history.
Incidentally, this is the highest ever opening run stand for Pakistan in the history of Champions Trophy. It was also the first time that their openers forged four consecutive stands of over 40 in one day internationals outside Asia.
The partnership was extremely crucial considering that England had scored just 210 in their innings and then came out all guns blazing. However, the steady stand between the duo of Zaman and Ali calmed down nerves in the dressing room and helped Pakistan chase down a tricky total.
Speaking on the win, skipper Sarfraz Ahmed spoke at the post match presentation and said,”Credit goes to the bowlers and then the batsmen finished really well. Rumman bowled very well today. We decided to adapt to conditions, we knew if we could restrict them to 250-60, we could chase it. After the India game, the credit goes to the team management how they boosted us. Every game was a knockout game. Today as well they told us to not think about the match and just play the natural game. That helped us. Both teams are playing really well, all the best to them (India and Bangladesh). He (Hasan Ali) is very energetic and he is bowling well. If he takes wickets for us in the final that will help us for sure.”
