ICC Champions Trophy 2017 semifinals: England vs Pakistan match prediction

England were the best team in the group stages of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, moving through to the semifinals by winning all of their games. So, there will be extra pressure on England when they host Pakistan in the first semifinal of CT 2017 on Wednesday.

Being the favourites can make your or break you and while England handled the pressure of expectations really well in the round-robin stage, this is a whole new ball game.

They will be up against a Pakistan side in good form and full of confidence from their wins over South Africa and Sri Lanka.

Here is a look at how this ICC Champions Trophy 2017 semifinal could go.

If England bat first:

Alex Hales has a new partner in Jonny Bairstow and the latter wastes no time in making the most of this opportunity. Hales and Bairstow get England off to a solid start, putting on 84 runs together, with Hales the first wicket to fall, picked up by the ever-impressive Hassan Ali.

Shadab Khan/Fahim Ashraf (depending on who plays) then takes another wicket as Bairstow is also dismissed, but Joe Root and Eoin Morgan keep England on course for a big score with a measured partnership.

Sarfraz Ahmed tries to break the partnership by bringing Mohammad Amir and Junaid Khan back, and while that worked against Sri Lanka, it doesn't quite do the trick against this England batting lineup.

Morgan does fall to Amir, but Root, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler combine for a final overs blitz, that takes the England score to 318.

That is a really difficult target to chase down on a ground where scoring hasn't always been easy in this Champions Trophy, and it becomes all the more difficult when Fakhar Zaman falls in the second over to Mark Wood.

Azhar Ali and Babar Azam put on a decent partnership for Pakistan, but the scoring rate keeps increasing and with it so does the pressure. It eventually tells when Azam goes for a big shot off Stokes and only manages to lose his wicket.

Mohammad Hafeez doesn't do much with the bat, with Ali also falling soon after. While there are a couple of cameos from Shoaib Malik and Sarfraz Ahmed, the target is just too much for Pakistan.

If Pakistan bat first:

Zaman and Ali add 45 runs together for the first wicket, with the former scoring the bulk of those runs. When Zaman falls to Liam Plunkett in the ninth over, England sense a way in against the brittle Pakistan middle order.

However, Azam and Ali combine for a really strong partnership of 121, with Malik and Sarfraz then putting on another impressive alliance. Thanks to that final one, Pakistan are able to take off in the final overs and get to a score of 289.

England do not start their innings too well, with Hales falling to Amir in the first over. Bairstow, though, looks in touch from the off, and with Root for company at the other end, the two set the platform needed to haul down the score.

Morgan, Stokes and Buttler then come in, do what they do best, and take England to the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 final.

Ben Stokes gets ready for Pakistan