England sealed their status as the greatest white-ball team of this era on Sunday night at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, adding the 2022 T20 World Cup title to their 2019 World Cup 50-over triumph.
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Pakistan’s staggering assembly of fast bowlers fought every ball through the 19 overs of England’s chase after their batsmen had posted just 137. But Ben Stokes, scratching and missing and surviving, landed the counter-punches at crunch-time to deliver a five-wicket victory.
The three-match series against Australia last month was Stokes’ first in the T20I format in a year-and-a-half. He had made 2, 6 and 8 in the three T20 World Cup matches when he was required to rescue England in a must-win chase against Sri Lanka. Palpably out of touch, he still stabbed and dabbed and ultimately steered his side home with an unbeaten 42. And here he was, called upon again in a World Cup final chase that was getting tense by the minute.
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Pakistan, jagging hassling opponents
It was a chase of only 138 alright, but it was against Pakistan, who were making the ball jag around and take off as if in the first session of a Test match, with a drizzle around.
Alex Hales lasted two balls against Shaheen Shah Afridi’s late-swinging thunderbolts. Philip Salt had tried fighting Haris Rauf’s 150kph fire with fire, and burnt his hopes instantly.
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The genius of Jos Buttler had whisked some overdone deliveries to the boundary against the trend. But either side of an incredible scoop for six, Buttler had been beaten so many times by away movement and bounce, that it was hard not to feel for the luckless Naseem Shah. On any other night, he may have run through a line-up with this spell, consistently racking up 140-plus from Test-match lengths. Here, he would end wicketless at the cost of 30 runs. Buttler’s fortune ran out soon, though, against Haris Rauf, and at 45 for 3, Pakistan were right in the game.
Stokes and Harry Brook hung in, but only just. Stokes was having trouble putting bat to ball. When he did manage that, he would find the fielders in the ring. Meanwhile, the irrepressible Shadab Khan could have got Brook any ball, deceiving him often with flight and changes of pace, until he actually did.
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That third ball of the 13th over also turned out to be the moment when the chase tilted decisively in England’s favour. Afridi hurt his knee taking Brook’s catch at long-off and hobbled off.
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At the other end, on 24 off 34 now, Stokes had finally entered that zone where he comes up with unbelievable strokes in the midst of an epic struggle to survive. With the asking-rate touching nine – likely dangerous territory on a tricky pitch against this attack – he suddenly blasted Rauf between mid-off and extra cover for four.
Afridi returned next over, hurled one past Moeen Ali’s blade and walked off for one last time in the game, unable to bowl any more.
Two left-handers in the middle, Pakistan went to the part-time off-spin of Iftikhar Ahmed. Three balls passed without harm, but Stokes swung at the last two with everything he had. The first beat Babar Azam’s dive at wide long-off, the second sailed just over his leap. Game in the bag, Moeen Ali firmly fastened the zipper shut with three swatted and pulled fours in the 17th over from Mohammad Wasim.
Pakistan had valiantly made a game out of 137, but the frail batting that had failed to chase 131 against Zimbabwe had let them down yet again, dashing hopes of a repeat of the 1992 World Cup glory.
That the match began on time was itself a miracle given the forecast of stormy showers and El Nina on both match day and reserve day had raised the spectre of a shared trophy. The skies were heavy and gloomy, though, in keeping with the edginess of the initial proceedings.
In the absence of the injured Mark Wood, the new-ball pair of Stokes and Chris Woakes was at times wayward, but Mohammed Rizwan and Babar Azam were also never at ease on a two-paced pitch.
Curran, Rashid step up
After four overs of neither side landing a major punch, it was Sam Curran who did, having Rizwan inside-edge onto his stumps with some inward cut. The switch had been flicked on, and all the analysis and planning would fall seamlessly into place for England from hereon.
Adil Rashid put on a lovely display of leg-spin, tossing it up and slowing it down from a wider release, like he had against India in the semi-final. Muhammad Haris had been the booster that Pakistan’s top order needed, but he holed out early off Rashid. Babar Azam has had his long-running troubles with leg-spin and Rashid, and combusted to a googly once more.
Pakistan had sent in Shan Masood to add stability at the fall of Haris, and the left-hander was also a counter to leg-spin. England responded with Liam Livingstone’s off-spin, but Masood used his feet to target the shorter straight boundary and hit Livingstone out of the attack with a 16-run over.
Shadab is also a strong hitter of spin but on Babar’s departure, Pakistan sent in Iftikhar instead. Iftikhar endured a maiden from Rashid, getting beaten by the flight, dip and spin, and then barely surviving the sucker googly. After this ordeal, he got a brute of a lifter from Stokes to exit for a six-ball duck.
Still, Masood and Shadab had Pakistan in sight of 160 at 119 for 4 after 16 overs. But shockingly, Pakistan would scrape a mere 18 runs in the rest of the innings, succumbing to Chris Jordan’s hard lengths and Curran’s variations. They went a staggering 26 balls without a boundary from 15.2 to 19.4 overs. When batsmen move across to take on his wide lines, Curran goes full for the stumps, cramping them up; this caused Masood and Mohammed Nawaz to hit straight to deep midwicket. Pakistan scored just one boundary in the last four overs – a top edge by Afridi over the wicketkeeper.
The class of 1992 had Imran Khan and Javed Miandad building and Inzamam-ul-Haq and Wasim Akram hitting Pakistan to a competitive score, which allowed their bowlers to choke England. The first part went missing 30 years later at the same ground.
