Pakistan’s WC dreams shattered by clinical England

England players celebrate winning the ICC men’s Twenty20 World Cup 2022 Final between Pakistan and England at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Melbourne on 13 November – AFP

• Ben Stokes guides England to victory

England’s Sam Curran displays his trophies after the ICC men’s Twenty20 World Cup 2022 Final between Pakistan and England at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Melbourne on 13 November – AFP

MELBOURNE: Pakistan’s dream of emulating their World Cup win of 1992 was thrown out of the window by a clinical all-round performance by England who went onto win the T20 World Cup final by five wickets with an over to spare in front of 80,462 spectators at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) yesterday.

It was England’s second triumph in this format having won under Paul Collingwood in 2010 beating Australia in the final by seven wickets at Barbados.

After restricting Pakistan to a score of 137-8, there was no way that England were going to throw away that advantage. Even though Pakistan fought back hard to capture four wickets for 84 and have England at 97-4 by the end of the 15th over, which was nine runs behind them, there was no denying England the victory which their bowlers had brilliantly conjured.

Despite losing wickets England scored at eight an over, and for Pakistan to defend such a small total they had to keep taking wickets. Pakistan hit eight fours and two sixes in their 20 overs, and England had six fours and a six in the first power play of six overs, which made the difference.

It was that man Ben Stokes again who was England’s utility man. He kept a cool head to convert what looked like a tight contest into a comfortable win. Against Sri Lanka when wickets were falling around Stokes guided England home with an unbeaten 42 off 36 balls (2 fours).

Yesterday Stokes had the temerity to suppress the hostile bowling of Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah to finish unbeaten on 52 off 49 balls which comprised a six and five fours.

With Harry Brook (20) and Moeen Ali (19) offering good support in stands of 39 and 48, Stokes edged England closer to victory, which was eventually achieved when he pulled Mohammad Wasim through vacant midwicket for a single that saw the stadium erupt to the tunes of “Hey Jude” and “Sweet Caroline”, two songs which are famously associated with an England win.

Pakistan lost their main spearhead Shahid Afridi at the start of the 16th over when he delivered just one ball and walked off the field with Iftikhar Ahmed completing the over. Afridi hurt his right knee while taking a catch at the long-off boundary offered by Harry Brook. But by then England were in control.

Despite all the hype about the Melbourne weather, the weather gods smiled on the organisers ICC and kept away so that a complete game of cricket was witnessed.

Pakistan’s batting was choked by the leg-spin of Adil Rashid in the middle overs and by the left-arm seam of Sam Curran at the death. The two bowlers strangled the strong Pakistan line-up capturing five wickets between them for 34 runs. Chris Jordan tightened the screws further with figures of 2/27.

The majority of the Pakistani batsmen got out trying to hit the cover of the ball and ended up skying catches into the deep where Liam Livingstone compensated for conceding 16 runs off the only over, he bowled by holding onto three catches.

Rashid applied the breaks on the Pakistan run rate by capturing the wickets of Mohammad Haris for eight and the prize scalp of Babar Azam for 32 to end with figures of 2 for 22. Pakistan lost 67-3 in the middle overs with Rashid taking two wickets.

Then Curran who had initiated the breakthrough by getting the wicket of Mohammad Rizwan removed Shan Masood for 38 and Mohammad Nawaz for four to finish with excellent figures of 3/12, a performance that won him the Player of the Match as well as Player of the Series.   

Under leaden skies and the possibility of rain later in the day England chose to bowl first after winning the toss. But the anticipated rain thankfully never appeared with the exception of a slight drizzle.