KOLKATA: "We're gonna bat first." With those words, England captain Jos Buttler literally ended the slimmest hope that Pakistan had of sneaking into the World Cup semifinals at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.
Pakistan's process of scripting a miracle had to begin with winning the toss, which skipper Babar Azam duly lost. All the talks of planning and execution went for a toss and it became just a contest for pride from the first ball that Shaheen Shah Afridi sent down.
