The Pakistani cricket team defeated team India in the finals to win the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 and Fakhar Zaman was pretty instrumental in carving this 180 run victory of Pakistan by scoring his maiden ton.
However, little did we know that it was not just Indian balling that was faced by Fakhar but also some sledging from Indian skipper Virat Kohli and bowler Jasprit Bumrah. If you remember, Bumrah dismissed Fakhar when he was at the score of 3 but as the ball was given a no-ball, he continued his innings.
This is what Fakhar told Firstpost,
“There was a lot of chatter when Azhar Ali and I were at the crease. Virat was constantly saying, ‘Arre, ek wicket nikal jayega toh yeh saare out ho jaayenge. Bas ek ko nikaalo jaldi (If we get one wicket, the rest will collapse)’.”
He said this about Bumrah,
“Bumrah had me caught behind, but it was off a no ball. So, he was also very vocal. On one occasion, he said, ‘Thoda saamne bhi run banaa le. Kab tak aise khelega? (Make some runs in front of the wicket. How long are you going to play like this?)’”
However, the Pakistani cricketer also made it clear that Indians never crossed their limits and everything that they said was totally about cricket, which is fine in his opinion as everybody wants to win. In his words,
“But to be honest, the Indian players didn’t cross any line. Actually, that was purely cricket-related and positive sledging, which is fine. Everyone wants to see his team win and they do their best to achieve that.”
Fakhar also said that when he scored century, Virat applauded but Dhoni gave no reaction.
