South Africa confirmed their status as perennial tournament underachievers after choking in a major semi on Wednesday as England breezed through their top order to reach the ICC Champions Trophy final by seven wickets.

The hosts bowled AB de Villiers’ men out for just 175 in 38.4 overs, a score that could have been much worse had ninth-wicket partnership, David Miller and Rory Kleinveldt, not put on a 95-run stand when England were on top at 80-8.

Despite the late pair’s consummate batting, England eased their way into Sunday’s final with 75 balls remaining. The Proteas must look at themselves and work out where it all went wrong. They were sent into bat on a muggy, overcast day at the Oval but the cricket betting in 2013 and beyond did not expect England’s seamers to be quite so dangerous.

The openers went early thanks to some fine pace delivery from James Anderson and Stephen Finn, while Stuart Broad got in the act with three wickets himself. This pace trio look destined to rip apart Australia later this summer and, if the baggy green play anything like South Africa, the Ashes will be a non-entity.

AB de Villiers has had a disappointing campaign, going for a duck, much like opener, Colin Ingram – who impressed once (73 v West Indies) during an otherwise lacklustre tournament. Lonwabo Tsotsobe has underperformed with just four wickets taken for 169 and, were it not for Ryan McLaren’s flurry against Pakistan, that match would have been tighter too.

The defeat was South Africa’s eighth semi-final exit in international cricket and so their trophy drought continues. It was reminiscent of their semi loss to India in the 2002 Champions Trophy where, like Wednesday, two men batted with purpose while the others failed to deliver.

South Africa were one of the favourites heading into this tournament but without captain Graeme Smith they looked ill prepared against India and were lucky to beat West Indies. Next month, they face an ODI series with Sri Lanka and must perform to regain some credibility after a stuttering campaign that offered so much but produced very little.

When a die hard eternally optimistic Pakistan cricket fan gives up, it pretty much shows how damn sad the state of affairs is in Pakistan cricket.

I can't watch the Pakistan ODI team any more.

Since Ijaz Butt committed the single biggest mistake ever in the history of cricket in Pakistan by removing Shahid Afridi from the helm of Pakistan's ODI team and making Misbah its captain, Pakistan's ODI cricket has suffered immensely.

His supporters will always talk about the Asia Cup win and the amazing series win over India at the end of 2012, but that is not enough.

We have been humiliated 4-0 by England and 3-1 by Sri Lanka, we have lost ODI series to Australia and South Africa, and we have just been miserably embarrassed in the Champions Trophy.

The Asia Cup, the series win in India, and the 4-1 domination of Sri Lanka at the end of 2011 are the only 3 major ODI victories that Misbah's ODI team can boast of.

Take a closer look and you will find out that it is the same set of players that led Pakistan to those ODI wins - Shahid Afridi, Nasir Jamshed, Mohammad Hafeez, Junaid Khan, Saeed Ajmal and ofcourse Misbah.

These are your match winners.

What the other players are doing in the XI, or for that matter even in the squad, is beyond me.

Pakistan's utterly disgraceful ODI performances over the past two years have nothing to do with the captaincy, the presence of Misbah, or a defensive mindset.

The foremost reason for these horrid ODI performances is the selection.

The selectors who select the squad, along with Misbah and Whatmore who select the XI, are all at fault.



Mindboggling to see players like Shoaib Malik continue to play every single ODI despite not putting up even one half decent performance for over 3 years. I do not understand how he makes it to the squad in the first place, let alone the playing XI.

The same is the case regarding Imran Farhat who has been torturing us for 12 years now. I have been watching this sorry batsman since 2001 and there has been absolutely no change in the way he looks, bats, and loses his wicket - it was shit in 2001 and it is shit now in 2013.

When will the selectors realize that both Malik and Farhat are mediocre cricketers, domestic bashers, and no good for international cricket?

I really do feel that the average public is far smarter than those people warming the selectors seats in the PCB.

What is even more disturbing is that players like Malik and Farhat continue to keep getting their chances while promising batsmen like Umar Akmal, Azhar Ali, and Haris Sohail do not even make it to the squads.

The treatment of Umar Akmal is a sorry tale, while Haris Sohail probably does not understand what more he needs to do to break into the team.

Much like Shoaib Malik doesn't understand what he has to do to get the damn axe!

The selectors and the team management have committed so many blunders in the past 2 years that it is quite inexplicable how they continue to hold their positions.

1. How can you drop Umar Akmal, first from the playing XI and then from the squad, while he is your top ranked ODI batsman and averages 40 in the 30 ODIs that he has played under Misbah?

2. How can you drop Azhar Ali from the ODI team after he has averaged 41 in 14 ODIs under Misbah? I understand that he may not have the best strike rate in the world but for a team that struggles to play 50 overs these days, a batsman who can stand his ground for a long time should be a blessing.

3. How can you drop Shahid Afridi, not once but twice from the ODI team, but continue to select Shoaib Malik?

4. How can you drop Nasir Jamshed, who averages 46+ in 20 ODIs under Misbah, for the last 2 ODIs against South Africa and play Imran Farhat in his place?

5. How can you drop Asad Shafiq for the Champions Trophy match against South Africa, yet play both Shoaib Malik and Imran Farhat?

6. How can you not find a wicket keeper to replace Kamran Akmal?

7. I agree with the decision to drop Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi, but I don't understand how they can be axed when players like Shoaib Malik and Imran Farhat are in the team?

8. Are the stats shown above only understood by the public? Are the selectors really that illiterate?

So many questions, absolutely no answers, and yet no accountability for the selectors, coach, or captain.

Sad.

1. Cricket in the late 90s and the better part of the first decade of this century was dominated by Australia - they were the number 1 test team, they won the World Cup thrice in 1999, 2003, and 2007, yet the Champions Trophy eluded them. They did not even make the final of the Champions Trophy in the first 4 editions held in 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004.
   
   
2. Interestingly enough, Australia won the next two editions in 2006 and 2009 and are the only team to win the Champions Trophy twice. They enter this edition in an effort to make it three on the trot.
   
   
3. Besides MS Dhoni, none of the other captains from the Champions Trophy in 2009 are captaining their teams this year. Besides Sangakkara and Vettori, the other captains (Ponting, Smith, Strauss, Younis, Reifer) from 2009 are not even in the squads.
   
   
4. Misbah Ul Haq, Alistrair Cook, Angelo Matthews, and Brendon McCullum are captaining their teams for the first time in an ICC tournament.
   
   
5. Misbah Ul Haq has never played an official ODI in England.
   
   
6. The Champions Trophy is the only ICC event, which has witnessed Pakistan win against India. In fact they have played twice in the Champions Trophy with Pakistan winning both times. While in ICC World Cup and World T20 events, Pakistan has never beaten India.
   
   
7. This is the only ICC tournament that South Africa have won. They won the inaugural Champions Trophy in 1998. That remains their only ICC silverware in multi-nation ODI / T20 events.
   
   
8. Besides Chris Gayle, none of the leading run scorers nor the leading wicket takers in all Champions Trophies till date are taking part in the 2013 edition of the tournament.
   
   
9. This is the last ever Champions Trophy. The ICC has decided to scrap the tournament and replace it with the ICC Test Championship in 2017.

Pakistan were supposed to play 6 ODI matches in the UK leading up to the Champions Trophy but the weather permitted them to play only 4.

And they lost none of them.

If there was ever an effective way to warm up for a major tournament, this is it.

An easy win over Scotland, a nerve wrecking 1-0 series win over Ireland, which could have easily been 2-0 to Ireland, and a clinical victory over South Africa should give Pakistan enough confidence going into the ICC Champions Trophy, a tournament that they have never won.

As always unpredictability surrounds the Pakistan team. Even though they beat South Africa easily, the fans have no confidence in the team at all due to their ability to implode on any given day.

The same common theme of great bowling, coupled with unreliable batting, characterizes the Pakistan team.

However, there is a new look to it. There is no Younis Khan, no Shahid Afridi, no Umar Akmal.

I don't fully support the exclusion of Afridi and Umar, however I believe that without Younis Khan, the ODI team is a lot more stable, and without Afridi it is a lot more balanced.

Mohammad Hafeez at number 3 gives the batting line up a new look and a lot more solidity. Kamran Akmal is definitely better off at number 7, and the sacking of Afridi allows Pakistan to field 3 seamers, which is needed in England.

All the batsmen, besides Nasir Jamshed, have been among the runs in the 4 matches that Pakistan has played. Poor Nasir hasn't crossed 20, but he is too good a batsman to not come good in the important matches.

Hafeez with an unbeaten century and a fifty, Misbah with an unbeaten 80 odd, Asad Shafiq with 80 odd, Imran Farhat with a couple of 50s, Shoaib Malik with a hard fought 40 odd, Kamran Akmal with a match winning 80 odd, and Umar Amin with his unbeaten 20 odd runs last night against South Africa have all got good outings at the crease over the past two weeks.

We can always count on Pakistan's bowling to be good; and if the batting can remain steady, Pakistan can be the most dangerous team on show in the Champions Trophy.

Martin Guptill, Shane Watson, JP Duminy, Virat Kohli, and Dinesh Karthik have all shown that the pitches in England this time around are very batsman friendly.

This can only be good for Pakistan as the bowlers can trouble the best batsmen on any wicket, and our batsmen only look good on flat decks.

In Junaid Khan and Mohammad Irfan, Pakistan has got a potent opening attack. Asad Ali has impressed in the short time he has been with the team and Wahab Riaz has looked good on the UK pitches thus far. But the team will have two choose between Asad and Wahab.

I like Asad the bowler and he is definitely more effective than Wahab, but Wahab's batting just might give him the edge over Asad.

Add Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez to the mix, and its an attack that would be the envy of most teams.

I am not sure who they will play at 6 - Shoaib Malik or Umar Amin. I guess that will depend on the conditions. Umar can bowl handy medium pace, while Malik provides a spin option.

Probable playing XI: 1. Imran Farhat 2. Nasir Jamshed 3. Mohammad Hafeez 4. Asad Shafiq 5. Misbah Ul Haq 6. Umar Amin / Shoaib Malik 7. Kamran Akmal 8. Asad Ali / Wahab Riaz 9. Saeed Ajmal 10. Junaid Khan 11. Mohammad Irfan.

Pakistan kicks off its campaign on Friday against the West Indies at the Oval, before shifting base to Birmingham where it will play South Africa and India the following week.

And this time round, Pakistan's got a serious chance!

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So Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal have been left out of the touring party for the UK where Pakistan will first play a couple of ODIs in Scotland and Ireland, and then take part in the final edition of the ICC Champions Trophy.

That is going to be one action packed UK summer for Pakistan's cricketers and all of you better get hold of your Sky Sports deals an make sure you are ready to follow Misbah & company as they take the field in Scotland, Ireland, and England.

Two of my favorite cricketers are out of the team, with at least one of them not deserving the axe at all. But I'll move on and focus on the players that have been picked.

Particularly the three newbies - Umar Amin, Asad Ali, and Ehsan Adil.

Asad Ali
I first spoke about Asad Ali when I wrote the two part piece on "Pakistan's new ODI team". He has an exceptional First class, List A, and Twenty 20 record, an he was the leading wicket taker in the recently concluded President's One Day Cup Competition.

He was one of the 20 bowlers to take part in the 10-day fast bowler's camp under the supervision of Wasim Akram, which must have helped him immensely.

He comes with 8 years of domestic experience under his belt and at 24 is still very young to have a long career for Pakistan.

Asad might end up being the largest beneficiary of Umar Gul's injury and with the supportive conditions in England, he could not have asked for a better opportunity to break into international cricket.

Umar Amin
Umar Amin made his ODI and Test debut in 2010 when he played in the Asia Cup and the following tour of England with no success. He has been long considered to be a talented batsman, but his record is hardly impressive.

With an average of below 40 in first class cricket and below 35 in List A cricket, I seriously do not feel that he is international material. If anything his failure in the Asia Cup and the tests in England in 2010 told the same story.

Yet the selectors have picked him, not only ahead of Umar Akmal, but also ahead of better domestic performers like Sohaib Maqsood, Haris Sohail, Khurram Manzoor, and Azhar Ali.

The only notable performance Umar gave this past season was his glorious 281 in the President's Trophy that helped him to end the competition as the leading run scorer. Yet the all the batsmen mentioned above scored more first class and List A runs than him during the past season.

I have my doubts about Umar Amin, which I hope he can prove wrong; but I really do not see him succeeding in international cricket.

Ehsan Adil
Ehsan Adil is another tall pacer in the mould of Mohammad Asif. We all saw him make his test debut in South Africa, where he picked up Graeme Smith with his third delivery in international cricket.

Adil is one of the leading wicket takers of the past domestic season and along with Asad, Junaid, and Irfan creates a potentially dangerous pace attack for Pakistan.

He was also part of the fast bowler's camp under Wasim Akram and will be a better bowler in England than he was in South Africa.

I can bet that we all will see a lot of Adil and Asad over the next 10 years. For all your cricket bets, use bwin.

The Squad and the XI
Pakistan's Champions Trophy squad looks a bit bowler heavy to me with as many as 7 specialist bowlers - Junaid, Irfan, Asad, Adil, Wahab, Ajmal, Rehman! Taking the keeper, Akmal, and the "allrounder", Malik, out leaves room for only 6 specialist batsmen with 1 of them totally unproven in international cricket.

I don't get how a nation known to have a brittle batting line up picks a squad for a place like England (seaming conditions et al) with only 6 specialist batsmen.

With Younis Khan out of the team, Asad Shafiq will definitely get an extended run and I guess the playing XI will pick itself:

1. Hafeez 2. Farhat 3. Nasir 4. Misbah 5. Asad 6. Malik 7. Kamran 8. Junaid 9. Ajmal 10. Asad 11. Irfan

Or Asad could play at 3 and Umar Amin at 5 with one of Nasir or Farhat sitting out.

In either case without Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi that looks like a very weak batting line up to me with almost no firepower. With Younis gone and Misbah vowing to play more aggressively the batting is lacking an anchor as well.

As always the batting has left a lot to be desired and the bowling is looking like an exciting prospect.

And as always, the selectors have amused us all once again!

He missed a few matches for SNGPL in October-November due to his brother's wedding without notifying the team management that included Misbah, Hafeez, and coach Basit Ali, and that resulted in his exclusion from the domestic team.

That's one story doing the rounds.

He had a clash with the SNGPL management and has since then been in Misbah's bad books.

That is another story doing the rounds.

Doesn't matter, which one is true but once again Pakistan cricket has presented yet another case of mismanagement of talent.

How many talented players is Pakistan going to waste because they don't have good man managers?

I agree that talent and flair is not enough to keep someone in the team, but Umar Akmal is a lot more than that.

For starters, Umar Akmal is the highest ranked Pakistani batsman in the ICC Rankings for ODI Batsmen. Not only that, but besides Misbah, Umar is the only Pakistani batsmen in the Top 20. ICC Rankings don't lie and the biggest factor that adds to your ranking is consistency.

Secondly, Umar Akmal is Pakistan's 3rd highest run scorer in ODIs since January 2011. Only Misbah and Hafeez have scored more runs than him during this period of over two years, but they have also played almost double the number of innings that Umar has.

Not only that, but Umar Akmal is among the top 20 run scorers in ODIs since January 2011.

Who else has performed that well for Pakistan in ODI cricket?

Not only has he done well for Pakistan, Umar has been their most consistent batsman in ICC events including the World Cup and World Twenty20. Given that record, he should have truly been in the Champions Trophy squad.

You can find a lot of sports betting tips and I'm sure most tips would have slated down Umar to be the leading scorer for Pakistan in the Champions Trophy if he was in the squad.

I am upset about Umar's exclusion, but I am even more upset at the way it has been handled.

Coming of two successive fifties in ODIs against Sri Lanka and Australia, Umar Akmal was dropped from the playing XI for the first two ODIs against India. It made no sense to drop a batsman who had scored two fifties in his previous 3 ODI innings.

He was brought back for the final ODI against India and managed to score 25.

He was in the squad for the ODI series against South Africa but did not play even one of the five ODIs.

And now he finds himself out of the squad.

The selectors and management feel that they have smartly phased Umar Akmal out of the international team.

But all they have really done is wasted the immense talent of a player like Umar Akmal, shattered his confidence, mismanaged his career, and taken out the most explosive component of Pakistan's batting line up for a major tournament.

How many more players are you going to waste!?

The plans to visit the UK this summer were made a couple of months ago. It was planned as a leisure trip more than anything else before the realization dawned that the last edition of the Champions Trophy is also being played in the UK this summer.

It was a no brainer then that the trip to the UK had to be timed accordingly.

With Pakistan playing on the 7th, 10th, and 15th the plan was made to be in London from 6th June till 16th June.

Flight arrangements were made, friends in London were notified, and now we just needed Champions Trophy match tickets and visas.

The tickets for Pakistan vs West Indies at the Oval on 7th June and for Pakistan vs South Africa at Edgbaston on 10th June were easily available. However, the initial allocation of tickets for Pakistan vs India were sold out.

Everyone I knew was registered on the ICC ticketing website to receive an email about when the next allotment of tickets will go on sale.

And the wait started.

Two months went by and friends in Pakistan, Dubai, and London kept wondering whether another Pakistan vs India match in the stadium will be possible or not.

The last one I watched at the stadium was the one at the World T20 last year in Colombo, and I don't have many good memories about that match.

I watched the 2011 World Cup semifinal in Manchester sitting among 20 Indians. Not many good memories about that match either.

And now I was waiting for the tickets to go on sale so that I can watch another Pakistan vs India match with those same Manchester friends in the stadium! And other friends too traveling with me from Dubai and Pakistan.

I grew up watching Pakistan vs India at the Sharjah cricket stadium. We rarely used to lose back then, and my childhood memories of Pakistan vs India encounters at the stadiums are cheerful ones.

I want those memories back.

But first, I want those damn tickets!

This past Friday the wait finally ended when the ICC circulated an email that the tickets will go on sale on Monday at 10:30am UK time, i.e. 1:30pm here in Dubai.

Alarms were set for 1:00pm for reminders and I glued myself to my computer screen from the time I woke up and made sure that any meetings or calls were scheduled for 2pm or later.

At 1:00pm my alarm rang. I was already on the ticketing website. I clicked on Pakistan vs India and the message still said that the initial allotment was sold out.

I refreshed the page every 2-3 minutes till it hit 1:30pm. When nothing changed at 1:30 I frantically started refreshing the page.

1:45pm and still nothing.

I sent out stressed out messages to friends saying that there is no second allotment for Pakistan vs India tickets and they all asked me the same question - "how do you know?"

I bloody well sat in front of that website hitting refresh like a crazy person for an hour, that's how I know you fools!

Little did I know that the fool was I. It was Sunday and the tickets were not going to be released till Monday!

Ofcourse Monday. The ICC said Monday.

What was I doing looking for them on Sunday?

Monday came, alarms were set once again, lunch and meetings were rescheduled, and there I was once again sitting in front of the computer screen waiting for 1:30pm.

At 12:40pm I logged on to the ticketing website and it took me to a page that said:

"We are experiencing large traffic volume at the moment so we have placed you in a queue to enter the website. Please wait in queue and you will be redirected to the website momentarily"

I was expecting something like this, but at least a page loaded and it had the decency to tell you that there was a queue.

Yes. A virtual queue.

They might not be physically exhausting than actual queues for tickets outside events, but it was mental torture I swear. Not knowing how many people are in front of you in a queue makes it worse and I figured that out yesterday as I waited for my turn in this Virtual queue.

It was 1:30pm. A bar showed me that I had waited my time and should enter the site any second, but still nothing happened.

Phone calls, messages, emails were all being exchanged and once again we all waited for the website to let us enter.

Then the page refreshed. It refreshed again. And again. And again. And finally the page for buying tickets appeared.

For the first time since I decided to purchase match tickets (it had been 3 months I think), I saw "find tickets" in front of Pakistan vs India instead of the usual "more info".

Yes. Tickets were on sale!

In less than a minute I had bought 5 tickets for Pakistan vs India at Edgbaston on 15th June.

Within the next 3 minutes I spoke to 3 friends who mentioned that they had also managed to buy tickets. Each one of them bought 8, the maximum allowed. The best part is, without knowing, we all managed to buy tickets for the same RES Wyatt Stand!

So now we have 29 tickets for the Pakistan vs India match on 15th June.

And London, here we come!!

It has been two years since I left the UK and I can't wait to get back to the UK summer, cricket, casinos, london bars, restaurants, Manchester, night clubs, and old friends. It is still two months away, but as one my friends said yesterday, "mentally, I am already there".

London, we are coming.