Mohammad Rizwan-led Pakistan's crushing defeat against India has pushed them on the verge of getting eliminated from the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025. India rode on Virat Kohli's match-winning century to flatten Pakistan by six wickets at the Dubai International Stadium on February 23.
Virat Kohli cracked his 51st ODI century to help India overhaul Pakistan's modest total of 242 runs without breaking a sweat.
Mohammad Rizwan rues Pakistan's defeat against India
Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan was left absolutely shattered as he rued team's humiliated loss against their arch-rivals India. Barring Saud Shakeel and Rizwan, who notched a gritty 62 and 46 respectively, none of the Pakistan batters stood the test of time which saw them eventually getting bundled out for a lowly total. Rizwan blamed both Pakistan's batting and fielding for heavy defeat against India. He said Pakistan batters' shot selection was bad which is why they kept on losing wickets. He also said Pakistan were sloppy and admitted his team made a lot of mistakes in the match and vowed to work on them going forward.
"We won the toss but didn't get the benefit. We wanted to get 280 but their bowlers did really well in the middle overs. When Saud and I were batting, we wanted to go deep. But our shot selection was bad and lost wickets, which is why we were kept to 241. Abrar gave us the wicket, but Kohli and Gill took the game far from us. We must improve our fielding. We made a lot of mistakes this match, they've repeated, hope to work on them going forward," Rizwan said at the post-match presentation.
Pakistan, who are not staring at early elimination, will now take on Bangladesh in their last league match on February 27 and will look to favourable outcomes from other teams to make it to semifinal, which looks dim now.
Looking at it Pakistan, after back-to-back losses against New Zealand and India, can still technically qualify for Champions Trophy semifinal.
Here is how Pakistan can qualify for Champions Trophy semifinal despite losing to India:
Pakistan's path to the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 semi-finals now hinges on a complex set of results. To keep their hopes alive, they require both Bangladesh and India to decisively defeat New Zealand in their upcoming matches, ensuring a significant margin of victory. This scenario would leave New Zealand with only two points after three games and a diminished net run rate. Subsequently, Pakistan must secure a substantial victory over Bangladesh, keeping them also at two points and creating a three-way tie with New Zealand and Bangladesh.
If these conditions are met, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and New Zealand would find themselves in a three-way tie on the points table. The final semi-finalist from Group A, alongside India, would then be determined by the team with the superior net run rate.
However, Pakistan's hopes will be dashed if New Zealand, led by Mitchell Santner, manages to win either of their remaining two matches, regardless of the victory margin. Any win for New Zealand would eliminate Pakistan from contention in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
