Ben Stokes and Sam Curran starred as England edged Pakistan by 5 wickets to win the Twenty20 World Cup on Sunday and develop into the game’s first twin white-ball champions, holding each the 50 and 20-over titles.
Jos Buttler’s facet held Pakistan to 137-8 in entrance of a partisan 80,462 followers at a heaving Melbourne Cricket Ground, with player-of-the-match and match Curran bagging 3-12 and Adil Rashid chipping with 2-22.
In reply, England slumped to 49-3 within the sixth over as they struggled to get any momentum towards a fiery tempo assault, with boundaries laborious to come back by.
But Stokes (52 not out) and Moeen Ali (19) used their expertise and funky heads to information England to 138-5 with six balls to spare, climaxing a riveting match that spanned 45 video games over practically a month.
“In finals, especially when chasing, you probably forget all the hard work before that. To restrict them to 130, the bowlers have to take a lot of credit. Adil Rashid and Sam Curran won us the game,” mentioned Stokes.
“Pretty good evening. Representing your country in World Cups is amazing, it has been a good one.”
Curran mentioned Stokes ought to have been participant of the match.
“We all look up to him. People question him, but he’s incredible. He’s the man,” he mentioned.
“The way I bowl, I go into the wicket with my slower balls and keep the batsmen guessing. World champions, how good,” he added.
The victory added to the 50-over title England gained in 2019, constructing on the legacy of former captain Eoin Morgan, who retired this 12 months after remodeling the crew right into a white-ball juggernaut.
It was England’s second T20 crown after tasting success in 2010, becoming a member of the West Indies as the one two-time winners for the reason that match’s inception in 2007.
The recreation was billed as a showdown between Pakistan’s assault and England’s high order, and Shaheen Afridi bowled hazard man Alex Hales within the first over of the run chase.
But that solely fired up Buttler who smashed two boundaries off Naseem Shah.
Phil Salt, taking part in instead of the injured Dawid Malan, didn’t final, making simply 10 earlier than pulling Haris Rauf to Iftikhar Ahmed
The ball was swinging and seaming and the menacing Rauf claimed the important thing wicket of Buttler simply as he was getting in, edging to wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan on 26 off 17 balls.
The runs dried up as they reached 77-3 on the midway level of the innings, in comparison with Pakistan’s 68-2.
Harry Brook got here undone on 20 towards the spin of Shadab Khan, holing out to Afridi and got here right down to needing 41 runs off the ultimate 5 overs.
Rashid strikes
Stokes relieved the strain with a 4 and a six off Ahmed and there was no stopping them with the England all-rounder hitting the successful runs.
With forecast rain staying away, England produced disciplined and economical bowling to stymie 2009 champions Pakistan, with Shan Masood’s 38 the highest rating.
Stokes was given the brand new ball after England gained the toss and selected to discipline with Pakistan fortunate to outlive the over intact as opener Rizwan was nearly run out going for a dangerous single.
Rizwan and Babar Azam shared a century partnership of their semi-final towards New Zealand, however one other huge stand wasn’t to be, with Rizwan dragging a supply from Curran on to his stumps on 15.
The introduction of Rashid quickly after the six-over powerplay reaped a right away reward with Mohammad Haris (8) attacking him on his first ball solely to sky a easy catch to Stokes.
Masood started swinging the bat within the second half of the innings, hitting a 4 and 6 off Liam Livingstone.
But as soon as once more Rashid obtained the breakthrough, pulling off a diving catch from his personal bowling to say the very important wicket of Azam, whose 32 got here off 28 balls.
Ahmed solely lasted six balls earlier than Masood and Shadab Khan (20) fell within the house of two runs as Curran and Chris Jordan stored the lid on any hope Pakistan had of a late flurry.
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