Pakistan warm hearts, India and Australia shine at home

NEW DELHI (Reuters): Steve Smith helmed Australia’s successful Ashes mission and India proved impregnable at home but it was cricket exiles Pakistan who had the most memorable year in 2017.

Britain Cricket - Pakistan v India - 2017 ICC Champions Trophy Final - The Oval - June 18, 2017 Pakistan's Sarfraz Ahmed and team mates celebrate winning the ICC Champions Trophy Action Images via Reuters/File Photo

Top teams have shunned the South Asian country since gunmen in Lahore attacked a bus carrying the visiting Sri Lankan side in 2009, killing eight locals and wounding six players and a British coach.

Eight years on from that fateful incident, the redemption-seeking eastern city was converted into a veritable fortress to host a rag-tag World XI led by South African Faf du Plessis in September.

“It has been a long and tough journey as the Pakistan Cricket Board, Pakistan players and fans have been starved of the opportunity to stage, play and watch international cricket in their own country,” the International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman Shashank Manohar said in a statement at the time.

“I am hopeful that today marks the start of the safe and steady return of international cricket to Pakistan.”

From Pakistan’s point of view, the outcome did not really matter but the hosts prevailed 2-1 in the three-match Twenty20 series, which paved way for Sri Lanka’s visit to play a one-off T20 match at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium next month.

The boardroom victory was preceded by on-field success for arguably the most mercurial side in the game. Sarfraz Ahmed and his men dethroned arch-rivals India in the 50-over final at the Oval to clinch their maiden Champions Trophy in June. It was a reassuring triumph at the eight-team event for Pakistan’s passionate fans, who were still coming to terms with the retirements of batting stalwarts Misbah-ul-Haq and fellow former captain Younis Khan in May.

Across the border, India reaped a rich harvest in a bumper home season to cement their place atop the test rankings.

India on song

A prolific Virat Kohli and his men clocked up their ninth consecutive series victory, joining England and Australia in an elite club, before heading to South Africa hoping to set a new benchmark.

Australia were the only team to beat India in a test match in 2017 but Smith’s men were first embroiled in an ugly pay dispute with their board which threatened their Ashes participation.

A peace deal was brokered in time and they ended the year reclaiming the urn with successive victories in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Smith led by example, smashing a century in Brisbane and a double century in Perth before registering an unbeaten hundred in the drawn fourth test in Melbourne to deny England a consolation victory.

The game’s governing body also expanded the test club, accommodating Ireland and Afghanistan as full members. The ICC decision came as a massive boost for someone like exciting Afghan spinner Rashid Khan, who has impressed in Twenty20 leagues in India and Australia and is keen to make his mark in the longer format.

Root hails England fight, worries about Smith

England’s captain Joe Root shakes hands with Australia’s captain Steve Smith to end the fourth Ashes cricket test match – REUTERS

MELBOURNE (Reuters): Steve Smith and an unresponsive pitch combined to dash England’s hopes of a first win of the series on Saturday, but captain Joe Root praised his team’s “character” for rallying in the wake of their meek surrender of the Ashes in Perth.

The fourth test ended in a draw late on day five, with home captain Smith’s unbeaten 102 saving Australia and doling out another portion of frustration for England’s bowlers, who toiled fruitlessly on a flat Melbourne Cricket Ground strip.

England will head to the fifth and final test in Sydney still 3-0 behind in the series but in a far more positive frame of mind after dominating the hosts for most of the match.

“In terms of our squad, the character is never something that I question, and the way that we apply ourselves and the attitude that we take is always there,” Root told reporters.

“It proved this week after three tough games and tough results to come back and put in a performance like that was extremely pleasing for me as a captain.

“They had a lot of disappointment coming away from Perth and you could see the way they went about training that they were desperate to prove a lot of people wrong and make sure we get something good out of this tour.”

Root will have been buoyed by the belated return to form of opener and former skipper Alastair Cook, who scored an unbeaten 244 in a Man-of-the-Match performance.

With Smith dismissed for “only” 76 in the first innings, Root’s bowlers were also able to contain Australia to 327, a below-par score on such a lifeless deck.