Pakistan’s Hopes for ICC Champions Trophy came to a back-breaking end as the Kiwis beat the Pakistani team by five wickets in the second semi-final of the tournament, in Johannesburg on October 3, 2009. With the victory, New Zealand moves on to meet Australia in the final while the Pakistani team will be packing for home.

Winning the toss, Pakistan chose to bat first and scored a total of 233 runs for nine wickets in 50 overs. The target proved easy enough for the confident Kiwis whose batsmen as well as all-rounders proved too tough for the Pakistani side. Grand Elliot’s unbeaten 75 and Daniel Vettori’s 41 led the Kiwis to victory with 234 runs in 47.5 overs at the loss of five wickets.

For the Pakistani audience, the defeat was a big disappointment and many are attributing it mostly to weak fielding of the team, especially the team captain Younas Khan’s failure to catch Grand Elliot out on 42. However, Khan blamed the batting line for performing poorly, saying that the batsmen could not maintain the good start they had taken. Like always, the disappointment may be soothed a little by reminding all that lapses do occur in sports and defeat is as much part of the game as anything.