WOW! What a match that was! England won the final by beating Pakistan by 5 wickets. ‘Good Stokes always gives returns‘
Everyone at Red Camp smiled and hugged. Butler is a satisfied leader. First major tournament for him as captain and he won the championship. Meanwhile, Pakistan gathers itself. They know that England were the deserving winners on the day. Pakistan didn’t get enough runs but their bowlers turned absolute gold in most parts until Shaheen was forced out due to a knee injury.
England still had the ability to cross the border even with Afridi in their line-up with a ton of hitters, especially with Stokes stuck like glue at the crease. Pakistan were very confident when Rauf took on Buttler but the best Stokes did handle the pressure in a big game and hold one end. Pakistani bowling lineup was brutal but England held on at home in the end.
Match Review (England vs Pakistan)
Pakistan’s innings: England won the toss and invited Pakistan to bat first. One of the most successful duos, Babar and Rizwan came to crease. Both of them were slow at the start of the inning as usual. In the 5th over, Curran made the first victim in the form of Rizwan. Mohammad Haris also kept walking behind him in the 8th over. Adil Rashid again got Babar Azam and the score was then 84 runs at the loss of 3 wickets in 11 overs.
After Babar’s dismissal, none of Pakistan’s batsmen stood for long. Iftikhar Ahmad got a duck. Shan Masood and Shadab Khan tried to play an impactful inning at the back end of their quota of 20 overs. England managed to stop Pakistan for just 137 runs at the end.
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SCORECARD:
Pakitan- 137/8 (20)
| BOWLING | Overs | M | Runs | Wickets | ECON | 4s | 6s |
| Ben Stokes | 4 | 0 | 32 | 1 | 8.00 | 1 | 0 |
| Chris Woakes | 3 | 0 | 26 | 0 | 8.66 | 2 | 1 |
| Sam Curran | 4 | 0 | 12 | 3 | 3.00 | 0 | 0 |
| Adil Rashid | 4 | 1 | 22 | 2 | 5.50 | 1 | 0 |
| Chris Jordan | 4 | 0 | 27 | 2 | 6.75 | 3 | 0 |
| Liam Livingstone | 1 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 16.00 | 1 | 1 |
England’s innings: Now the semi-final heroes for England, Jos Buttler, and Alex Hales stepped in to chase down an easy-looking task. How many times has it happened that Shaheen Afridi has given his team the wicket in the very first over of the innings? Here he does it again with the wicket of Alex Hales in the very last ball of the first over.
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Although the target for England was just 138, the Pakistani bowling unit made it feel like 160 on the board. Soon after the first wicket, Philip Salt was sent back to the dressing room by Rauf. Skipper Jos Buttler took the charge and spitted a few boundaries but couldn’t face the scary pace of Haris Rauf for too long.
Harry Brook went soon too but that brought Moeen Ali into the crease who then provided the pace to England’s Inning that they were looking for. His cameo of 19 had already done the damage. The name that would hurt the whole of Pakistan is ‘Ben Stokes’. Once again, he turned the match towards England in a difficult moment.
Shaheen Shah Afridi seemed a bit low with his knee and couldn’t complete his overs. In the end, Ben Stokes with a fifty sealed the win and booked the trophy. The T20 World Cup 2022 trophy is going to England.
SCORECARD:
ENGLAND- 138/5 (19)
| BATTING | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
| Jos Buttler (c) | c Mohammad Rizwan b Haris Rauf | 26 | 17 | 3 | 1 | 152.94 |
| Alex Hales | b Shaheen Shah Afridi | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Phil Salt | c Iftikhar Ahmed b Haris Rauf | 10 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 111.11 |
| Ben Stokes | not out | 52 | 49 | 5 | 1 | 106.12 |
| Harry Brook | c Shaheen Shah Afridi b Shadab Khan | 20 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 86.95 |
| Moeen Ali | b Mohammad Wasim | 19 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 158.33 |
| Liam Livingstone | not out | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| BOWLING | O | M | R | W | ECON | 4s | 6s |
| Shaheen Shah Afridi | 2.1 | 0 | 13 | 1 | 6.00 | 1 | 0 |
| Naseem Shah | 4 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 7.50 | 3 | 1 |
| Haris Rauf | 4 | 0 | 23 | 2 | 5.75 | 3 | 0 |
| Shadab Khan | 4 | 0 | 20 | 1 | 5.00 | 1 | 0 |
| Mohammad Wasim | 4 | 0 | 38 | 1 | 9.50 | 5 | 0 |
| Iftikhar Ahmed | 0.5 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 15.60 | 1 | 1 |