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MELBOURNE, Australia – By defeating Pakistan by five wickets on Sunday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of more than 80,000 spectators, England won the T20 World Cup Final in spectacular fashion.
Ben Stokes, England’s talisman, led his team to win with an unbeaten 52 off 49 balls during a game that was played amid the danger of rain. Despite the drizzle that interrupted England’s innings, the game was played under clear skies.
Stokes scored the winning runs, just as he had done three years prior when England won the one-day World Cup. With those runs, England became the first men’s team to simultaneously hold the one-day and T20 World Cups.
“I believe that when you are in the finals and in the lead, you forget the hard work that came before. According to the BBC, Stokes stated, “I think the manner we bowled, with Adil Rashid and Sam Curran, is what won us the game.
The bowlers deserve a lot of credit for being able to restrict them because the wicket was difficult and you never felt like you were in control.
The England bowlers held Pakistan to 137-8 runs in a tight encounter, while their Pakistani counterparts responded in kind to impede England’s run chase.
After England won the toss and decided to bowl, Pakistan chose to bat first but found it difficult to score heavily against a barrage of accurate bowling.
Adil Rashid and Sam Curran, who was eventually voted player of the tournament, were the stars of the England attack, with Rashid claiming the crucial wicket of Babar Azam for just 32 in the 12th over.
While all was going on, Curran amassed astounding stats in the final, winning player of the match for his four over spell that saw him give up only 12 runs while also claiming three wickets.
Even though England was attempting to chase a relatively modest target, they failed when Pakistan’s top fast bowler Shaheen Afridi dismissed Alex Hales in the first over.
Stokes walked to the crease after England’s second opener Phil Salt holed out at mid-wicket in the fourth over and anchored nearly the whole duration of his team’s innings.
To keep the game essentially level and set up a suspenseful conclusion, Pakistan, on the other hand, continued to bowl superbly, with Haris Rauf taking the crucial wicket of Jos Buttler.
