England’s golden generation of white ball cricketers overcame a spirited Pakistan to lift the T20 World Cup trophy with a comfortable five-wicket victory here on Sunday.
The Pakistani fans were longing for an encore of 1992 when Imran Khan’s team created history at this very venue but batting let Babar Azam’s side down as 137 for 8 was never going to be good enough.
The seasoned Ben Stokes (52 not out off 49 balls) just like the 2019 ODI World Cup, anchored the chase despite occasional scratchiness and had a calm Moeen Ali (19) as an ideal foil. They chased down the target in 19 overs to regain the title they had won in 2010 in the West Indies.
Experienced Haris Rauf and young Nasim Shah bowled their hearts out to prevent it from becoming a one-sided game but Stokes soaked the pressure along with Ali as the duo put on a 48-run stand for the fifth wicket to nail the win that avenged England’s loss to the same rivals in the ’92 World Cup final.
Shaheen Shah Afridi also could not bowl his full quota of overs after suffering a hamstring injury while fielding and that too helped England. But player of the evening certainly was left-arm seamer Sam Curran, whose couple of spells had heavily tilted the game in the favour England.
Shane Warne had tormented Pakistan at the MCG in the 1999 final and it was turn of another leggie Adil Rashid to flummox them. Stokes took 30 balls to measure the Pakistani attack but with no scoreboard pressure, the southpaw pressed the accelerator just when needed to finish the match.
England’s depth in resources could be gauged from the fact that they became the champions despite not having Dawid Malan, Mark Wood in the knock-out games and Jonny Bairstow, a T20 superstar in the form of his life, was not available for the tournament.
It was seven years back in this very country that England’s limited overs cricket lay in tatters with a dated approach and lack of intent being pointed as the reason for a group league exit from the ODI World Cup.
