Babar Azam scored 28-ball 32 in T20 World Cup final against England© AFP
The Pakistan cricket team put in an ‘ordinary’ show with the bat in the T20 World Cup final against England on Sunday. Batting first, Babar Azam & Co. only put 137 runs on the board. Skipper Babar himself spent the joint-most amount of time on the pitch, lasting for 28 deliveries, in which he scored 32 runs. Harbhajan Singh, during the mid-innings break, didn’t budge from criticising the Pakistan skipper for the manner in which he executed his innings.
As an expert for the broadcaster Star Sports, Harbhajan slammed Babar saying: “Pakistan will be disappointed with their batting effort. They didn’t take their chances early on and Babar was pretty ordinary in my book. You are the captain of this ship and you cannot bat like that. 28 balls and you are just scoring 32 runs. You are putting your team in deep deep trouble. They couldn’t come over it.”
Sam Curran and Adil Rashid were the top performers with the ball for England. Curran was absolutely brilliant, producing figures of 3 for 12 in 4 overs. Rashid, on the other hand, bagged 2 wickets for 22.
Chris Jordan (2 for 27) and Ben Stokes (1 for 32) were the other England bowlers who managed to pick up at least one wicket each in the match.
The match turned out to be another topsy-turvy affair. Pakistan did well with the ball, especially at the top as Alex Hales (1) and Phil Salt (10) departed early.
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Ben Stokes and Harry Brook did stitch a partnership together before the latter departed for 20 off 23. After Brook’s departure, Stokes joined hands with Moeen Ali to cruise England charge. Moeen also departed for 13-ball 19 in the 19th over.
With Liam Livingstone at the other end of the pitch, Stokes remained unbeaten on 52 as England secured a 5-wicket win to lift the T20 World Cup trophy for the second time in their history.
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