The tangled scheduling was a result of India not playing any of their games in Pakistan for the tournament, and they were supposed to play the semi-finals in Dubai, regardless of their standings in Group A. Such a scenario became all but inevitable after India refused to travel to Pakistan for the tournament, despite the country officially being the sole host of the tournament. The PCB had spent several months trying to get India to visit Pakistan, at one stage proposing hosting all their games in Lahore. However, the BCCI said the Indian government did not grant the team permission to play cricket in Lahore.
New Zealand are set to take an early-morning flight to Lahore from Dubai on Monday while South Africa will fly back to Pakistan later in the day after having spent around 36 hours in Dubai.
While Rohit Sharma was pleased with India’s showing – they are the only team with three wins in as many games in the Champions Trophy – he turned his focus to the semi-final against Australia.
“I think it [momentum] is very, very critical when you’re playing such a short tournament,” Rohit said after the win against New Zealand. “You try and possibly win every game that is in front of you and try and do everything right and while doing that, there are bound to be mistakes but as long as you correct them quickly, that is what matters. I thought the mistakes that we’ve been making from game one now, we tend to correct those mistakes and that is what is required.
“It [semi-final] is going to be a good game and obviously we know Australia has a rich history of playing ICC tournaments well. We do understand that; it’s about what we want to do against the opposition and try and do that right. We’re all looking forward to that contest and hopefully we can stitch one [more win] towards us.”
More to follow…
