Sunday, November 13, 2022

PAK vs ENG T20 World Cup final: Pakistan record second-lowest score in T20 WC finals history

Pakistan managed to score only 137/8 in the final of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Sunday. Notably, this is the second-lowest total in the T20 World Cup finals history.

Pakistan are only behind their arch-rivals India in the list. The Men in Blue had registered 130/4 in 20 overs in their clash against Sri Lanka in the 2014 ICC T20 World Cup final after they were put to bat first by the Lankan Lions. Virat Kohli emerged as the lone warrior for the side scoring 77 runs. However, Sri Lanka chased the easy target in mere 17.5 overs to clinch the coveted title.

Talking about T20 World Cup 2022 final between Pakistan and England, Sam Curran delivered stunning spell and bagged three while Chris Jordan and Adil Rashid took two wickets each respectively to restrict the Men in Green to low total.

Shan Masood scored the highest runs for Pakistan with 38 while skipper Babar Azam scored 32.

Curran, who made comeback from an injury earlier this year, has been England’s ‘go to’ bowler in the competition and he proved that on the big stage with brilliant figures of 4-0-12-3.

The wily Rashid (4-1-22-2) wasn’t going to be left far behind as he choked the run-flow in the middle overs with as many as 25 dot balls between him and Curran.

Rashid, with his stupendous effort, time and again showed how the Indian team management bungled its script by letting Yuzvendra Chahal cool his heels throughout the tournament.

The MCG track had enough bounce and pace but Buttler’s best performing bowling duo (Curran and Rashid) did exactly the opposite – take the pace off their deliveries.

Rashid flighted and lowered his pace to 75 kmph while Curran bowled between 126 kmph to 130 kmph which made run scoring difficult for the Pakistani batters.

Both Babar Azam (32 off 28 balls) and Mohammed Rizwan (15 off 14) started on a cautious note as they had been doing for the past one year.

Curran, England’s most consistent bowler in the tournament, angled one across at fuller length and Rizwan didn’t have enough width to drive as he dragged that back to the stumps.

Mohammed Haris (8 off 12), the find of the tournament for Pakistan, generally struggled before Rashid ended his misery.

He flighted one and enticed Haris to charge down the track but he was too close to the pitch of the delivery and was holed out at long-on.

Babar hit a couple of boundaries but as it has been for him generally, it was more of a struggle to keep the scoreboard alive.

In fact, Shan Masood (38 off 28), who takes time before taking the attack back to the opposition camp, looked more aggressive than his skipper.

At the start of the back-10, when Jos Buttler introduced Liam Livingstone to bowl his off-breaks, Shan got 14 runs with a down-the-ground boundary and a six.

But Babar at the other end was foxed by the guile of Rashid as he shaped to play the cut and found a googly cramping him for room to give a return catch to the English leg-spinner of Pakistani descent.

Iftikhar Ahmed (0) would like to forget the evening as he was kept under a tight leash by Rashid and then Stokes bowled one in the channel to get a nick as Pakistan slumped to 85 for 4 in the 13th over.

Shan would definitely curse himself as he built a launchpad for himself and threw it all away as Curran tested his patience with variations of cross-seam deliveries and cutters.

The mistimed pull was easily taken at the mid-wicket boundary and Pakistan cricket’s current darling Shadab Khan (20 off 14 balls) promised a lot but delivered too little.

(With PTI inputs)



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