T20 World Cup: Stokes, Curran, Rashid help England win title, become white-ball

Leftarm pacer Sam Curran and legspinner Adil Rashid bowled brilliant spells to restrict Pakistan to 1378 before an unbeaten fifty from Ben Stokes helped England crown themselves as winners of Mens T20 World Cup with a fivewicket victory achieved with an over to spare in front of 80462 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on SundayElecting to bowl first in overcast conditions Curran 312 was impressive upfront and in death overs while Rashid 222 was stunning in the middle overs as Englands meticulous planning and tactics especially in the second half of the innings meant they never let Pakistan get away at any stage to restrict them to a belowpar scoreChasing the modest total England lost three wickets including that of captain Jos Buttler in the Powerplay But Stokes showed calmness and poise in his typical gritty style to slam an unbeaten 52 off 49 balls incidentally his first T20I fifty to take England over the lineSix years after Stokes was left heartbroken in the 2016 final at Kolkata when West Indies Carlos Brathwaite hit him for four consecutive sixes in the final over the allrounder finally found redemption by rising to the occasion at the MCG and sealing Englands second T20 World Cup trophyThis was the second time that Stokes played a pivotal role for England in the final of a global tournament after his Player of the Match efforts in the 2019 ODI World Cup final victory at the Lords The win also makes England the first team in the history of mens international cricket to hold both 50over and 20over World Cups at the same timeDespite a low score Pakistan fought well with the ball till the very end though Shaheen Shah Afridi went off the field after bowling the first ball of the 16th over due to issues with his right knee which resurfaced after taking a catch of Harry Brook in the 13th over tilted the match in Englands favourAs Shaheen Afridi left the field after bowling just one ball Stokes took advantage of it by hitting a four wide of cover and lofted just over longoff for six off parttime offie Iftikhar Ahmed Moeen Ali continued the tempo by taking backtoback fours through cover and squareleg off Mohammad Wasim Jr on the first two balls of the 17th overAlso Read Getting to No 1 doesnt happen overnight Sachin Tendulkar backs Team IndiaAli then ended the over with a topedge on a hard swipe over the keepers head Though Ali was clean bowled by a brilliant yorker from Wasim Jr in the 19th over Stokes reached his fifty in 47 balls with a controlled drive past deep cover He fittingly finished off the chase with a single through the onside to secure Englands winChasing 138 England lost Alex Hales as Shaheen Afridi took out his middle stump In the fourth over Phil Salt was cramped on the pull by Haris Rauf and was caught at midwicket Naseem then beat Jos Buttler five times in the fifth over though he conceded five wides and was scooped by the righthander for a six over fine leg But in the sixth over Rauf found a little bit of nip and found the outside edge of Buttler caught by the keeperStokes and Harry Brook did the rebuilding job for England with a 39run stand for the fourth wicket The duo relied on strikerotation while hitting boundaries in between But Brook struggled badly for timing and holed out to wide longoff off Shadab in the 13th over as Afridi jarred his knee while taking the catchIn the next over Stokes escaped a runout when a direct hit from midon missed the stumps by a whisker which proved to be a blessing for England to get the trophy with Ali by his sideEarlier Stokes kickstarted the final by bowling Englands first noball of the tournament He then bowled a wide down the leg side and ended up conceding eight runs in the opening over After no boundaries in the first three overs Rizwan got Pakistan going with a six slogswept over deep backward square leg off Chris WoakesRizwan shaped for a drive off Curran but chopped onto his stumps Babar Azam and Mohammad Haris took a four each off Woakes in the final over of Powerplay But England had the upper hand at the end of the Powerplay bowling 18 dot balls to keep Pakistan at 391Rashid made an immediate impact as he deceived Mohammad Haris with flight and got him holing out to longon Azam and Shan Masood hit some boundaries off Jordan and LivingstoneBut England made a comeback as Azams slice on a googly went back to Rashid for a low catch to his right in a wicketmaiden over In the next over Stokes got some away movement and extra bounce to find the outer edge of Iftikhar AhmedMasood and Shadab tried to resurrect with a 36run partnership But England fought back as Masood and Shadab fell to Curran and Jordan respectively while going for the big shots Curran picked his third wicket of the match as Mohammad Nawaz chipped straight to deep midwicket while Wasim Jr holed out to the deep off Jordan in the final over as England picked four wickets while conceding only 31 runs in the last five oversBrief scores Pakistan 1378 in 20 overs Shan Masood 38 Babar Azam 32 Sam Curran 312 Adil Rashid 222 lost to England 1385 in 19 overs Ben Stokes 52 not out Jos Buttler 26 Haris Rauf 223 Shaheen Shah Afridi 113 by five wicketsMelbourne England players celebrate with their trophy after defeating Pakistan in the final of the T20 World Cup Cricket tournament at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne Australia on Sunday November 13 2022This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever