England came up with ruthless performance to lift the T20 World Cup trophy for the second time, thrashing Babar Azam led side by 5 wickets at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Sunday. Pakistan lost their key bowler while defending 40 runs in the last five overs of the match and failed to turn the table, despite giving many headaches to the English batsmen in a low-affair game. Before leaving the field with his head down and hands on the head, Shaheen Afridi conceded only 13 runs in his first two overs. He came back to bowl his third over, which was the 16th over of England’s innings, but could only bowl a delivery and left the field. A knee injury became a killer moment for the bowler.
Iftekhar Ahmed came to bowl the last five deliveries of that over and conceded 13 runs, and that was the point where Pakistan lost all the control.Eventually, England sealed the match with five wickets and one over to play. Ben Stokes led the way for the Lions hitting his first fifty in T20Is. He remained unbeaten for 52.Stokes got a great redemption for his failure of defending 24 runs in the final of 2016 against the West Indies. After six years of that nightmarish over in Kolkata, Stokes scored the World Cup-winning run for England in Melbourne.
England is now the first and only team to win both the white-ball World Cups at the same time.Earlier, England won the toss and sent Pakistan to bat first.Babar Azam-led team failed to post a challenging total on the board. They lost wickets on regular intervals and never looked to offer some challenge to the English bowling attack.Sam Curran, the England speedster, continued to shine and bagged three wickets just conceding 12 runs in four overs. He was the highlight of England’s controlled bowling in the final.
Adil Rashid and Chris Jordan have also done well with the ball picking up two wickets each.Pakistan lost Mohammad Rizwan inside the powerplay, and young Muhammad Haris was also sent back early. From the begging of their innings, Pakistan’s batting lineup has looked sluggish.Curran scalped the first wicket of Rizwan, and then Rashid came to the scene and picked up the wickets of Haris and Babar.Babar was opening his arms, but a googly from Adil did the trick for England. Babar fell for 32 off 28 balls.
After Babar’s dismissal, the onus was on Iftekhar Ahmed and Shan Masood to keep the scorecard afloat. But Iftekhar failed to deliver in the final. He suffered a duck and fell prey to Ben Stokes. Pakistan’s dismal batting continued after that. Shadab Khan scored 20 off 14 balls but that was enough for them to pass the 150-run mark. They were not even able to score 140 in the final. In the first ten overs, Pakistan scored 68 for two. In the next ten overs, they scored only one run more, losing six more wickets. In the death overs, England’s bowlers were as outstanding as they have been throughout the event.
Both England and Pakistan have won one title of the T20 World Cup before this final. And 30 years ago Pakistan stunned England at the same venue to win their first World Cup title under the leadership of Imran Khan. But Pakistan failed to replicate that magical performance.
