Everything changed at the very last step for the Pakistan cricket team who reached the final, repeating a 30-year-old coincidence in Australia. Pakistan, which made a strong comeback in 1992 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground 30 years ago by defeating England, was once again on the verge of repeating the same feat, but England did not allow its wish to be fulfilled.
Ben Stokes (52 not out), who made England the world champion of ODI cricket three years ago at Lord’s, gave England the title of T20 World Cup 2022, again playing a fighting innings in the final of the shortest format. Along with this, England settled the 30 years old account with Pakistan.
After 30 years in Melbourne, both the teams again reached the final of a World Cup. Babar Azam’s team made a comeback exactly like the Pakistani stalwarts of the 1992 World Cup and made it to the final, while England also traveled to the final in a similar way. Once again at the MCG, a strong final was expected between the two and the Pakistani fans were going to believe that the 30-year-old story would be completed again, but it could not happen and England changed the script at the very last moment and won by 5 wickets. With the World Cup in his name.
In this entire World Cup, the batting of both the teams could not show their strength in most of the matches. Except for the semi-finals, the batting of Pakistan and England was not very amazing. On the contrary, there was a competition between the two teams in the bowling. Pakistan had a slight edge here. In such a situation, it was clear that whose batting dominated the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the match would go to his side. However, this was not visible and the bowlers on both sides made it difficult for the batsmen to live on the crease.
After stopping Pakistan for just 137 runs, it was clear that England had the upper hand, but the threat of Pakistani bowlers was intact and that is what happened. In the very first over, Shaheen Shah Afridi bowled Alex Hales. Captain Jos Buttler, however, continued the counter attack in his style and showered boundaries.
From here Ben Stokes handled the innings and was supported for some time by Harry Brook. However, both were particularly troubled by Naseem Shah and Shadab Khan and longed for boundaries. Then Shadab made Brook his victim and got the Pakistani team back. Stokes, however, did not give up and pulled out the team by scoring two consecutive boundaries on Iftikhar in the 16th over in a difficult match. After this, Moin Ali confirmed England’s victory by hitting two consecutive fours in the first two balls in the 17th over.
