Melbourne: If England’s legacy as one of the great white ball teams in the history of cricket needed any more validation, then they did that in some style at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday.
England defeated Pakistan by 5 wickets in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 final to grab their second T20 world title, and they became the first team to hold a 50-over and T20 global trophy at the same time.
Combined efforts
It came via combined efforts of two big-hearted competitors — Sam Curran with the ball and Ben Stokes with the bat.
Curran, who worked as a commentator in the 2021 World Cup after failing to make it to the England squad with an injury, rattled Pakistan with a three-wicket burst.
While reading the term rattled, don’t confuse it for outright pace like some of his contemporaries — Mark Wood, Shaheen Afridi or Haris Rauf. The left-arm pacer from England bares goes above 135 kmph, but has developed wonderful control over his craft, and alloyed it with a sense of direction and variety.
Curran found the edge of Mohammad Rizwan’s bat and the ball sneaked on to his stumps, and it was a massive jolt for Pakistan as the wicketkeeper batter can bat deep into the innings building the scoring around him.
Curran then returned to dismiss the set Shan Masood, who made a 38 off 28 balls, to snap Pakistan’s momentum. Masood could not deal with a delivery that shaped away from the off-stump, and lofted a simple catch to Liam Livingstone in the deep.
Once Curran had done his bit, England needed someone to marshal the chase. 138 looks a feeble target in T20s these days, especially for a team with England’s fire-power.
But Pakistan has a bowling attack that can pound even the best. And they indeed did. Shaheen Afridi, till get injured, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf were relentless and bowled at high 140s, while spinner Shadab Khan gave little away.
England could not bring out their barn door-breaking strategy at the MCG but they had to adopt a rather cautious and brainy approach.
Stokes ensured that he remained till the end with an unbeaten 52 off 49 balls. His strike-rate read a rather slow 109. But tonight was not to beef up the strike-rate but it was for a calculated chase.
Stokes picked the right bowlers to throw his arms around, such as Iftikhar Ahmed to accelerate England’s pace. Fittingly, the winning runs came off the bat of Stokes.
Special occasion
Curran summed up the contribution of Stokes perfectly. “I don't think I should be getting THIS, the way Stokesy played there... we're going to enjoy this occasion, it's very special,” said Curran after the match.
The THIS in Curran’s sentence meant Player of the Match and later he was adjudged the Player of the Tournament as well.
But in their heart, England would know that those personal titles had little meaning without their complete team effort and willingness to support each other.
So, let’s roll out the red carpet to this England side: champions of the T20 World Cup 2022 and a bunch of trend-setters.
