Cardiff: Fantastic bowling from Hasan Ali (3/35), Junaid Khan (2/42) and Rumman Raees (2/44) followed by some superb batting from their top order batsmen, including Azhar Ali (76), Fakhar Zaman (57),, Babar Azam (38) and Mohammad Hafeez (31) helped Pakistan beat hosts England by eight wickets in the first semi-final of ICC Champions Trophy at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff on Wednesday.

Pakistan will now meet the winners of India vs Bangaldesh match in the final on Sunday.

Prasing both his bowlers and batsmen for the stupendous win, Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed said: "We bowled very well and after that the batting was good too. Mohammad Amir wasn't playing but Raees came in and did well. We elected to bowl and chase again and that worked. After India, every game was a knockout game, I said to the players to just play your game.”

Talking about India rematch in the final, he said, “Both teams (India and Bangladesh) are playing well, so we will play whoever gets through.”

On Hasan’s performance, Sarfraz said that he's very impressive. “Hopefully he will do that in the final as well. Whenever he comes on he's getting wickets.”
England skipper Eoin Morgan said that his team didn't adapt to conditions, coming from Edgbaston to a used wicket. “Pakistan did that well and played better. We did prepare but Pakistan bowled well. We didn't adjust and 200 isn't competitive. 250-270 would have been a good score. We bowled okay but 200 was well under par. We continue to learn, everything we did was calculated, but Pakistan had played on the wicket previously and that helped. You have to adapt in knockout cricket, so it's an important lesson,” added Morgan.

Hasan Ali, who was named Man of the Match said: "It was a big match, so we focused on our bowling. My coach Azhar Mahmood helped me a lot. He gave me the plan and I implemented it.”