Internet Desk: Proving all the cricket pundits wrong, Pakistan beat defending champions India convincingly by 180 runs to win their maiden ICC Champions Trophy on Sunday. Fakhar Zaman’s maiden ton and Mohammad Amir’s spell helped Pakistan to clinch their first 50-over ICC event trophy after 25 long years.
Former wicketkeeper of Pakistan cricket team Rashid Latif posted a video on Facebook, where he lauded the Pakistan cricket team’s performance in the big final against arch-rivals India. “Will like to congratulate Pakistan cricket team, Hafeez ji ko.” he said.
Pakistan last played against India in India five years back in 2012, where they defeated the Men in Blue in the three-match ODI series. After that series both the sides have not played any bilateral series. They had only faced each other in the ICC events.
“There is no answer to this win. It is itself a big reply to all the critics. India and Pakistan should play together as Asia is the biggest market for the world. Tournaments like Ashes or any other tournament is not big enough than India-Pakistan matches. Even ICC knows and thus they don’t let a bilateral series happen between the two countries. We have Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan. These are the teams which dominate in Cricket World. There should be bilateral series, IPL should consist of Pakistan players while Indian players should be a part of PSL”.
After India defeated Bangladesh in the all important semifinal on Thursday veteran Indian opener Virender Sehwag tweeted that, India will beat Pakistan (Beta). In reply to Sehwag’s tweets, Latif said “Nobody is anyone’s father or son. Everybody loves cricket. From where did the father-son relation come from? This was something you guys were narrating and we (Pakistan) would like to end it.
After Pakistan’s comprehensive victory on Sunday, Sehwag congratulated them on twitter too.
Virat Kohli & Co. started their journey in the ICC Champions Trophy by beating Pakistan convincingly by 124 runs. But proving all the critics wrong Pakistan reached the final after beating the cricketing giants like South Africa, Sri Lanka and hosts England in the semifinal.
“In this Champions Trophy, we lost in one match and now India lost in the final. This is a part of cricket and this happens in sports. I request senior players like Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Manjrekar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Ajay Jadeja, Mohammad Azharuddin. This is a list which seems never ending. I would like to congratulate Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya. Jadeja, Ashwin and Yuvraj Singh. Harbhajan Singh has had helped Pakistan a lot in the past,” Latif added.
“This is a gesture from Pakistan and I would wait for a gesture from India, either from Sehwag, or Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor. We grew up watching his movies like Bobby. We respect Indians and we expect the same from our neighbours. There is love between the two nations, however, a situation is made which benefits media.”
On their way to the final, India were the firm favourites to defend their title. Though Pakistan outplayed their arch-rivals in the final thanks to some brilliant performances by Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Amir.
According to Latif, Azhar Ali’s innings will be remembered by the cricket fanatics for long time. He also lashed out on media. He said “It was the first time that there were two India-Pakistan matches going on. On one side, India-Pakistan were playing on field while there was another match was going on the social networking sites. Both the countries are cricket-mad nations, the more they play together the more profit they will make. If Fakhar Zaman had scored a hundred against any other team, it would have meant something else. Azhar Ali’s innings will be remembered for a longer time.”
India had reached the final for the second time on the trot. On the other hand Pakistan made it to the Champions Trophy final for the first time. The former Pakistan wicketkeeper is eagerly waiting to see a bilateral between the two heavyweight sides.
“I expect India-Pakistan senior players will talk to bring back cricket between the two nations. India team is number one and can improve a lot. Congratulations for playing the final, hoping for more India-Pakistan matches. The way Sarfraz led the entire team, passion they showed was phenomenal,” he concluded.