Pakistan v England: Champions Trophy upset as hosts knocked out by Pakistan

Pakistan knocked hosts England out of the Champions Trophy to progress to the final with a stunning eight-wicket victory at Sophia Gardens.

Having won the toss, Pakistan put England in to bat and reduced the ordinarily destructive hosts to just 211.

READ MORE: Pakistan v England as it happened

It left Mickey Arthur’s charges with the relatively straightforward chase, which they completed within 38 overs.

Here’s what we learned from England’s defeat.

Wheel of fortune

Jason Roy was finally dropped by England following a string of low scores in 2017.

In his stead was Jonny Bairstow, who waited patiently for his chance at the top of the order to fire his 43 (57) before being caught by Mohammad Hafeez.

It felt like a higher total than all of Roy’s this year combined (it wasn’t), but it might have been a completely different story had he been given out LBW second ball.

The Yorkshire cricketer was trapped but the on-field decision was not given out. Pakistan reviewed, and were beaten by the tiniest of margins.

Needless to say, had Roy been the man under the spotlight, it feels as though fortune might not have been in his favour.

Pakistan bounce back form Mohammad Amir injury

Going into the match as underdogs, Pakistan may well have been feeling up against as they were facing one of the most lethal short-form teams around.

And that siege mentality was probably heightened when Amir was ruled out before the match with an injury.

But cricket is a funny game and the loss of the Pakistan seamer was relatively unfelt, with Rumman Raees, his replacement, picking up 2-44 and conceding just three boundaries in the innings.

Pakistan dried up the runs beautifully

The hosts started in their usual composed fashion, with Bairstow, Alex Hales and Joe Root combining to be 52-1 after 10 overs.

In fact, by the end of the 16th over they were 80-1, and looked well set to continue their recent dominant batting form in short-form cricket.

Only, as we know, this didn’t go to plan. All credit is due to Pakistan for the way they dried up the runs for the hosts and put the likes of Root, Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes under pressure.

Even though England found themselves 80-1 off 17, Pakistan made the hosts wait another 21-odd overs to double that score. A terrific feat.

They kept tidy fields and despite a couple of drops they restricted England, picking up wickets regularly. Chipping away, if you will.

England crash out of their own tournament

Was it very England-esque, or was it not?

The hosts have had a coloured history of checking out in the group stages of major tournaments across a plethora of sports, but having beaten Australia, New Zealand and Bangladesh to pick up maximum points in Group A, it seemed that they were strong favourites to win the Champions Trophy.

Only, they didn’t. And losing from a position of being favourites is not unknown to the England faithful either.

It will be frustrating for Morgan and Trevor Bayliss as they come to grips with the fact that one of the most exciting and attacking lineups could only register 211 in an innings

After all, we are looking at the side that has recorded the highest amount of 300+ scores in ODI cricket since the 2015 World Cup.