2017 will not be forgotten...

SPORTS ROUNDUP

There is no end to the joy I feel while writing the Sports Year-Ender for Us. I have been doing it for the last 10 or so years, I guess. For a sports fanatic like myself, it is a chance to revisit all the memorable sports events of the previous 12 months.

This year, however, is unlike any other and it’s not a secret why. 2017 is Chinese Year of the Rooster and Pakistan’s Year of the Champions Trophy! It’s been six months since that famous evening at the Oval, England, but it still feels like yesterday. If I dedicate the rest of this Year-Ender to that memorable tournament, it will still not do justice to the feeling that engulfed this nation on June 18, 2017.

Conquering the world

I have lost count of the number of times I have watched the highlights of the Champions Trophy Final. Pakistan team’s victory is not a short tale of success; it is a series of mini triumphs, each more dramatic than the other, that culminated into an epic, which unfolded on the grandest of stages.

Pakistan’s participation in the biannual event looked in jeopardy till last year when they hosted Zimbabwe. Only after beating the African minnows in the bilateral series did Team Green book a ticket to the all-important tournament that was scheduled to start on June 1, 2017.

Eight participants were divided into two groups and arch-rivals Pakistan and India were pitted against one another. The two locked horns on June 4, 2017 and as has been the case during the last few years, Pakistan were on the receiving end of a humiliating defeat.

The other two teams in the group were South Africa and Sri Lanka, and one more defeat was enough to seal Sarfaraz’s men’s fate. South Africa was next and in the build-up to this all important match, I was reading a review on a website. In the comments section, a fan had mentioned that Pakistan was destined to become the first team to exit the tournament after the Proteas beat them. At that moment, it looked a very logical and reasonable prediction.

The writing was on the wall; South Africa have always been a tough riddle to solve for Pakistan and then there’s always that element of uncertainty with Pakistan cricket team - you can never say which team will turn up on any particular match day. Luckily, however, the team that turned up for this pivotal tie against South Africa was a determined one, one that looked hungry, agile, young and athletic.

There were some new faces in the team: Shadab Khan the young leg spinner, Hassan Ali the wicket taking fast bowler and the debutant Fakhar Zaman who provided a fearless attitude up the batting order.

After the defeat against India in their first match, all remaining encounters for Team Green were knock out games. Pakistan bowled first and didn’t allow a South African team stacked with match winning power hitters any moment to settle into the game.

When rain stopped play in the second inning Pakistan were ahead of the par score and bagged an important victory. In the final group match, Pakistan faced Sri Lanka. The team was beginning to get their confidence back and their young bowlers were starting to replicate the talent and skill of their illustrious predecessors. The match against Sri Lanka, however, exposed the weakness of the batting line up but captain Sarfaraz along with Muhammad Amir guided Pakistan into the last four.

In the semis Pakistan faced a daunting challenge to beat the host, England. England, since the Cricket World Cup 2015, has been one of the best limited over teams in the world and on their own turf, they are almost invincible, but, the ease with which Sarfaraz’s team dispatched the favourites was remarkable. Pakistan were without their champion fast bowler Muhammad Amir, but, his replacement, Rumman Raees, remarkably making his ODI debut didn’t let the team down, and helped Pakistan roll England over for a meagre 211.

The target was chased down by Pakistan in the 38th over for the loss of only two wickets. India, meanwhile, had crushed Bangladesh in the other semifinal by 9 wickets. The orgnisers and the commercial sponsors had hit the jackpot; Pakistan vs India in a major ICC final is the stuff of dreams and cricketing euphoria had engulfed the entire subcontinent.

Pakistan, in spite of being high on confidence, were fearing the worst due to their poor record against India in ICC events. The memory of the last ICC final between the two countries (ICC World T20 2007) was still fresh in the minds of Pakistani fans when they lost to their bitter rivals in a closely fought match. Celebrations had started early on the other side of the border, as India were downright favourites to steamroll their way to the title.

Pakistan put up a massive total of 338 after being sent in to bat first. Their new boy, Fakhar, had chosen the perfect moment to score his first ODI century and Hafeez in an unfamiliar role provided the fireworks down the order to catapult Pakistan to their highest total in an ICC final.

There was, however, still a lot to be done as there’s no total that India’s star-studded lineup cannot chase on their day, but, they were up against the fearsome Muhammad Amir. Throughout the tournament India’s top three had absolutely dominated their rivals including Pakistan in the opening fixture but when Amir removed Rohit Sharma in the first over it became clear that this team was up for a fight.

In walked Virat Kohli, the man renowned for his chasing skills, but Muhammad Amir was on a different level that day. Amir was proving to be every bit the match winner that he has always been projected as. Here, he was bowling to a batsman that is hard to dismiss, yet Amir almost got him twice in two successive deliveries. The first chance was dropped by Azhar Ali but the next ball ballooned in the air and into the safe hands of Shadab Khan, making it 2 for 6.

Amir hit the final nail in the coffin by removing Shikhar Dhawan in the 9th over with India reeling at 33 for 3. That’s when Shadab Khan and Hassan Ali took the driving seat strangling the life out of the Indian batting lineup by dismissing Yuvraj and Dhoni. Indian team eventually succumbed to a massive 180-run defeat, the highest ever in an ICC tournament final; their total of 158 included a 76-run cameo from Hardik Pandya.

Hassan Ali was declared the Player of The Series for his 13 wickets in the tournament. It also helped propel the young Pakistan fast bowler to the pinnacle of ODI bowlers ranking. Pakistan finally got their hands on the ICC trophy that had eluded them much to the joy of Pakistan cricket fans across the world. The tremendous Champions Trophy win overshadowed an otherwise average cricket year for the national team. They started the year Down Under and could taste victory only once in seven attempts losing the Test Series 3-0 and the ODI rubber 4-1.

The team enjoyed more success against the West Indies. Before 2017, a touring Pakistan side had never won a Test Series in the Caribbean and it was only fitting that they achieved that milestone under one of their most successful Test captains in history, Misbah-ul-Haq, more importantly during the last series of his career.

Another son of the soil played his last international match on that tour, the indomitable Younis Khan! While the hashtag MisYou was doing rounds on social media, Younis also became the first batsman from Pakistan to reach the 10000 runs landmark in Test cricket. Shahid Afridi’s international career also came to an end in 2017, while match fixing saga surrounded the domestic cricket scene in Pakistan.

International cricket also returned to these shores this year as a World XI team toured Pakistan for a T20 series; the three match series was won by the hosts 2-1. Next up was Sri Lanka’s visit to the UAE where new Test captain Sarfaraz was unable to prevent his side from losing the Test series 2-0. Pakistan dominated the limited over series and won the ODI rubber 5-0 and T20s 3-0.

The second edition of Pakistan Super League was held in the UAE in February and March, but the final was played in Lahore on March 5 between Quetta Gladiators and Peshawar Zalmi, which the latter won by 58 runs to clinch the trophy for the first time.

Steven Smith’s Australia retained the Ashes Trophy by winning the first three Tests of the ongoing series.

GOAT

This phrase is being used very frequently in football fraternity these days. In fact, for the last 10 years, two of the best football players on the planet are battling hard to claim the title of the Greatest Of All Time. Ronaldo claimed the Ballon d’Or for the fifth time to move level with Lionel Messi.

Ronaldo helped his club Real Madrid retain both the UEFA champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup in 2017. Real Madrid also claim the La Liga title for the season 2016-17. Chelsea won the Premier League, Bayern claimed the Bundesliga and Juventus were crowned the champions of Italy.

UEFA Europa League was won by Manchester United; the win allowed them a direct entry in current season’s UEFA Champions Legaue. During the summer break, the FIFA Confederations Cup was held in Russia, the tournament serves as a prelude to the World Cup which is scheduled for next summer in Russia.

The Confederations Cup was won by the defending World Champion Germany who beat Chile in the final. During the summer, Brazil’s Neymar made headlines for his world record transfer from FC Barcelona to the French club PSG for a whopping 222m euros.

Farewell Usain

The world saw the last of arguably the greatest athlete of all time, Usain Bolt, at the 2017 IAAF World Championships held in London in August. It was, however, not the ideal end to a career that was punctuated with superhuman sprint efforts. Bolt lost in the 100m final to Justin Gatlin. United States of America claimed the most (10) gold medals in the event.

FedNad Domination

Tennis lovers were treated to some glorious vintage tennis from two of the greatest exponents of modern tennis, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Federer and Nadal claimed two Grand Slams each during the year 2017. Federer won the Australian Open and Wimbledon Championships; it was Federer’s record 8th win at Wimbledon; he is now one ahead of Pete Sampras and William Renshaw. Rafael Nadal won the US Open and his customary French Open title, his tenth!

There were four different winners in women tennis. Serena Williams won the Australian Open, Jelena Ostapenko claimed the French Open title, Garbi–e Muguruza was the winner at Wimbledon while Sloane Stephens of the United States won the last Grand Slam of the year, the US Open.

2017 will on the one hand be remembered as the year of revival for Federed and Nadal but, on the other, it will be remembered for the death of Jana Novotna (1998 Women Wimbledon Champion) who lost her battle with cancer on November 19, 2017 at the age of 49.

Across Atlantic

Golden State Warriors defeated Cleveland Cavaliers to clinch the NBA title. The Texas Houston Astros trounced the California Los Angeles Dodgers, 4Ð3 in games played, to win their first World Series title in Major League Baseball. On February 5, 2017 the New England Patriots beat Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI to become the champions of NFL.

The highly anticipated “Money Fight” between undefeated eleven time five-division boxing world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and two division Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) world champion Conor McGregor was staged in Nevada, USA on August 26, 2017. Mayweather defeated McGregor by TKO in the 10th round to claim his 50th win, surpassing Rocky Marciano’s long standing record of 49-0.

Also...

The only significant achievement of Pakistan Men’s Hockey Team was claiming third position in the 2017 Men’s Hockey Asia Cup in Bangladesh. India defeated Malaysia in the final. Various Multi-sport events were held throughout the year but the national interest in such events is regrettably insignificant. So, we will just leap across this chapter Bob Beamon style!

The year 2018 will start in a couple of days from now, but for that 10000th Younis Khan run, for that memorable series win in the Caribbean, for that scintillating Muhammad Amir spell and for that unforgettable evening at the Oval, the year 2017 will live long in the memory of Pakistan cricket fans. In short this year will not be forgotten...