Eoin Morgan praises the Pakistan Cricket Team for their fairytale Champions Trophy triumph

What is the Pakistan Cricket Team best at? Perhaps at springing up beautiful surprises. Their Champions Trophy 2017 triumph was no different. From narrowly making it to the 8 teams of the tournament, to being thrashed by India in their opening game, to winning the Cup and proving all the critics wrong. Their journey in the tournament was no less than a fairytale.

Coming from a terrorism-marred country, which doesn’t have a home ground since the past 10 years, not many would have backed them to emerge victorious. Pakistan trounced India, the defending champions and favourites of the tournament, by a whopping 180 runs. A couple of days ago, England ODI captain Eoin Morgan reflected on Pakistan’s win, a squad containing three uncapped players beat the world. From the redemption of Mohammad Amir, to the rise of Fakhar Zaman, the team had everyone in awe, including Morgan.

Lesson to learn

Morgan feels that his team needs to learn a lesson or two from the Men in Green and adopt the mechanism they use.  “I think it sums Pakistan cricket up that they can come from nowhere and still perform,” he said. “They work in a completely different way. I don’t think we operate like that, necessarily.”

It is pertinent to note that Pakistan stunned England by eight wickets in the semi-final to enter their maiden Champions Trophy final. The sensational bowlers produced another professional performance to restrict the best batting lineup of the tournament to 211 after Sarfraz Ahmed opted to bowl first.

Hassan Ali was the wrecker-in-chief, as he bagged a three-wicket haul. During the chase, Pakistan reached the target in only 37.1 overs, backed by Azhar Ali’s (76 off 100) and Fakhar Zaman’s (57 off 58) which provided them a perfect start.

For Morgan, who has largely changed England’s ODI team from worst to better, Pakistan’s journey is inspirational.