International Hockey Federation's most esteemed annual event kicked off in Auckland today where eight teams are battling for the trophy. Pakistan started their campaign with a prominent track record of 8 wins in previous 14 challenges against GB in Champions Trophy.

The crowd wasn’t in great numbers and the atmosphere was quite dull which is surprising to see in such a big event. It wasn’t free flowing hockey from either side. Pak got their chance on 17^th minute but wasn’t able to convert into a goal scoring effort. Centre forward, Haseem Khan missed it by whisker. Both team tried hard but in 40^th minute, Green shirts good work paid off & penalty corner was awarded. Captain Muhammad Imran did not miss it. His drag flick was hard to stop for opponents. Shortly after goal, Great Britain missed their chance due to good defending skills of Pakistan team. Pakistan led by 1 – 0 till the end of 1^st half.

Second half started with GB had most of the possession. Attack was made on Pakistan’s Goal Post but Salman Akbar showed his heroics in early moments of 2^nd half and saved a certain goal. His Sharp reflexes worked for Pakistan and added disappointment to opponents. GB showed again their significant skills in 20^th minute of the second half when Mark Pearn scored his first Champions Trophy goal in 10 years.

As we all know Pakistan one the 1992 cricket World Cup. Led by Imran Khan, Pakistan started to believe. Many youngsters were inspired and turned to to cricket. The nation was gifted the greatest prize of all. Here are some of the key moments on Pakistan's win.

England V Pakistan | Group stage: 1st March 1992

What was supposed to be just a normal group game and in the end ended in a farce was the defining factor of the tournament. England skipper, Graham Gooch, won the toss and decided to field first on what can be desribed as a green top with overcast conditions. Pakistan were soon in trouble as Philip Defreitas and Derek Pringle took early wickets to reduce Pakistan to 20 for 4. It didn't get much better as Pakistan continued to lose wickets. If not for Wasim Haider (13) and Mushtaq Ahmed (17) the team in Green would have not even got the 74 they did.

With England on 24-1 the rain came and the game was called off. Both teams shared a point each which in the end was the point that put Pakistan through to the Semi-Finals. One of them moments that shows what destiny really is.

Ravindra Jadeja scored the winning runs as India beat West Indies in the second ODI at Visakhapatnam.Virat Kohli slammed  a  century and Rohit Sharma played a mature innings ensuring that he would be in the middle for an Indian victory. 

Rohit made it easy, hoisting Roach over long off for a mighty six , in his final over.

Sehwag lived dangerously early in his innings ,and was even dropped by Sammy. Roach made early inroads as he sent the tentative Parthiv Patel packing fot just 2 runs.

It wasn’t the quickest of starts as Sehwag didn’t bother to go after the bowlers.Soon Gauti ( 12)fell , chopping a length delivery into the hands of a diving Barath who timed the jump to perfection, at cover.

After a slight delay , due to a light passing rain-shower , the play resumed .Kohli and Sehwag looked to steady the ship before Sehwag holed to a widish long on, off Marlon Samuels.

Second ODI between Pakistan and Bangladesh to be played tomorrow at the same venue as first two LOIs; that is the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium Dhaka. Pakistan came on top in both previous games, though not as convincingly as they would have wanted them to be.

Pakistan will be looking forward to put up an improved batting show in tomorrow’s game. On the other hand Bangladesh would want to keep it neat and simple, stick to their basics and keep Pakistani bowlers out.

Shahid Afridi:

Shahid Afridi is in top form ever since his comeback. We all know how dangerous this charismatic Pathan can be. He can influence a match victory single handedly, as he did in the last ODI. Bangladesh will try their best to keep this man out of the game in all three departments of the play. But that is going to be a real tough task for them.

Shakib ul Hassan:

For Bangladesh Shakib has been a left-handed version of Shahid Afridi thus far. A quality batsman, clever bowler and a very fine fielder. Shakib has proved his worth with ball in both LOIs, but at the same time, he has failed to deliver with the bat. Currently Bangladesh are in a dire need of any batting Messiah to stand up and perform on the given day. They’ll be hoping for Shakib to fire with the bat as well.

El Clasico, (English: The Classic) also known as El Derby Espanol is the name given to the football match between Barcelona and Real Madrid, the two of the biggest teams in Spanish Football. As per the normal schedule it comes twice in a year when the two teams face each other in the Spanish La Liga, while the number of matches may increase in a year if the two teams face each other in other competitions other than the European Champions League Final. It is the most followed football match along with the Milan Derby.

The rivalry begins with Barcelona and Madrid being the two biggest cities in Spain also having the richest, most successful and influential clubs in the world. Combining, they have won 146 trophies with Real Madrid having won 74 and Barcelona having 72 in their trophy Cabinet.

HISTORY BEHIND THE RIVALRY:

Both clubs have been politically charged and the Barcelona Presidency is one of the strongest political elections. Also in 1930’s Barcelona was described as “The symbol of Catalan pride and identity” which opposed the centralized tendencies of Madrid.