England won the 2022 Men’s T20 World Cup with a five-wicket victory over Pakistan. Stokes blasted a career-high 52 not out to help England meet the 138-run target with six balls to spare, becoming the first men’s team in history to hold both the ODI and T20 World Cups. England is the only country to have won multiple Men’s T20 World Cup titles, together with the West Indies.
A swarm of Pakistan cricket fans descended on the MCG on Sunday afternoon, with thousands of Aussie supporters singing and dancing outside the gates before they even opened.As the start time approached, the sea of green expanded in size and volume, with England fans thoroughly outnumbered.
The event was supposed to be hampered by rain, but the dense, dismal skyline over the MCG thankfully did not. Showers were visible on weather radars in Geelong and northern Melbourne, but they managed to avoid the CBD. Butler won the toss and elected to field first, but Stokes opened the game with a front-foot no-ball and a wide. After pacer Chris Jordan missed an opportunity to run out the non-striker, giving Pakistani opener Mohammad Rizwan an extra life on two, both sides got off to an anxious start. Pakistani flags were flying over the MCG when Rizwan found the middle of his bat in the fourth over and slog-swept England seamer Chris Woakes over the square leg boundary for the first six of the evening. Medical attention was required for the Pakistani gloveman who had struck his head on the ball while racing between the wickets. But the next delivery, he flashed outside off stump and edged the ball back onto his stumps, and Curran removed him.
Following the removal of the fielding restrictions, England’s seamers used the venue’s enormous square boundaries to repeatedly bowl short of respectable length, putting Pakistan on the defensive. England’s finest tweaker, Adil Rashid, removed young gun Mohammad Haris, caught at long-on for 8 (12), in the match’s opening delivery. The impact of Rashid was felt very quickly. Shan Masood demonstrated his preference for Liam Livingstone’s part-time spin by scoring 16 runs in his first over of the match.
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However, Rashid quieted the boisterous crowd by claiming the crucial scalp of Azam in a pivotal wicket maiden, tricking the opposition skipper with a careless move to break Pakistan’s momentum. Shortly after Stokes gave extra bounce to the deck by flicking the right-hander’s glove as he was making his way through to the wicketkeeper, Iftikhar Ahmed was removed for a sixth-ball duck. After a Jordan bouncer struck him flush on the helmet, Masood was given a concussion test, but he smacked England fast through the covers right away. Phil Salt’s awkward boundary-area fielding in the sixteenth over allowed Masood to add two more boundaries, but Curran eventually removed the left-hander for 38 (28), caught at deep mid-wicket.
Pakistan‘s batting faltered when Masood exited, losing 4/10 in 19 balls and scoring just one boundary in the final four overs. Despite bowling all of his overs, Player of the Match Curran did not give up a boundary throughout the Powerplay or in the last overs. Pakistan desperately needed an early lead, and Shaheen Shah Afridi, their speedster, gave it to them. The left-armer removed Alex Hales, England’s opening batsman, in the opening over of the run chase with a trademark inswinger that hooped into leg stump.
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Unfortunately, when LBW was called back as “Umpire’s Call,” Afridi was unable to grab another wicket in his following over. Buttler was faultless during the Powerplay, consistently driving Pakistan’s seamers through the covers. Then, taking away Salt for ten, Melbourne Stars cult hero Haris Rauf brought the 80,462 spectators back to life. After a spectacular series of events, Rauf sent England reeling at 3/45 after delivering a length delivery to Buttler’s outside edge in the sixth over. This effectively turned the tide in Pakistan’s favor.
It proved to be a crucial time because, once spin was introduced and fielding limitations were lifted, runs drastically dropped. To save the innings, Stokes and Harry Brook painstakingly put up a 39-run partnership for the fourth wicket after Mohammad Nawaz lost an opportunity to be run out in the eleventh over. In the next over, Pakistani fast Naseem Shah scared Stokes with three lengthy deliveries that went over the outside edge; Stokes could only laugh in horror. Shadab Khan’s spin got Brook in the twelfth over, although Afridi’s limping out of the field after taking the catch soured the wicket. After taking some tablets, the 22-year-old returned soon after, but after one delivery of his second session, he warily returned to the sheds.As the required run rate fell below six, Stokes and Moeen Ali started to find the boundary rope in the final five overs, eventually putting England in control.
England appeared to be coasting to victory until Mohammad Wasim’s yorker dismissed Ali in the final over. To ensure a historic triumph, Stokes maintained his composure and a few deliveries later, he nipped the paceman through mid-wicket.
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