Ben Stokes scored an unbeaten 52 off 49 balls to guide England to a 5-wicket win over their opponents Pakistan in the final match of T20 World Cup 2022 on Sunday, November 13. Haris Rauf’s 2 for 23 score went in vain as England beat Pakistan in the 138-run chase at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne. Earlier, Sam Curran returned with a spell of 3 for 12 and Adil Rashid picked 2 wickets for 22 runs as England restricted Pakistan to 137 runs for 8 wickets. England skipper Jos Buttler had won the toss for his team and opted to bowl first in the match.
All-rounder Ben Stokes showed his calmness and poise in his typical style to slam his score. Six years after Stokes was left heartbroken in the 2016 final at Kolkata when Carlos Brathwaite hit him for four consecutive sixes in the final over of the match, Stokes finally found redemption by rising to the occasion in a big match and sealing England’s second T20 World Cup title. The win also made England the first-ever side in men’s international cricket to hold two World Cup trophies at the same time, after Stokes played a pivotal role in the 2019 ODI World Cup final win at their homeland.
Jos Buttler and Alex Hales secured a massive 10-wicket victory for England over India earlier in Adelaide, shattering a tonne of records in the match. The pair put up an undefeated 170-run stand to ensure England’s win against Pakistan in Melbourne.
In the Super 12, both the teams finished second in their respective groups at the table, and at one point it appeared highly unlikely that they would advance to the semifinals even. But both the teams produced their best tremendous comebacks to not only get to the semifinals but also to clinch the title game. Thirty years after losing the 50-overs World Cup final to Pakistan at the MCG in 1992, England turned the tables on the south Asians with their brilliant death bowling and with Stokes finishing on 52 runs not out in a chasing of 138 runs for securing their victory.
In the nerve-wrecking final win over New Zealand in 2019, Stokes stood tall with an unbeaten score of 84. Leg-spinner Adil Rashid did some early damage for England with two wickets down, including the key moment of captain Babar Azam for 32 runs, before Pakistan stumbled in the final overs, losing at 4-10.
England (Playing XI) team
Jos Buttler(w/c), Alex Hales, Philip Salt, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Sam Curran, Chris Jorda and Adil Rashid
Pakistan (Playing XI) team
Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Mohammad Haris, Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah,Mohammad Wasim Jr, Haris Rauf and Shaheen Afridi
