England has beaten Pakistan to clinch their second T20 title. They won the competition after 12 years. It was in 2010 when Kevin Pieterson guided the three lions to glory in the Caribbean. He played a crucial and decisive role in making sure that England won the world cup. He proved to be the clutch player for the English side. Performing when it mattered the most. 12 years after England’s team was far stronger and played as a team. With the man of the match performances from nearly every spot, every player of them was a threat. 

In this article, we will discuss how the final between the two teams went and what were the key moments.

The match

The final was played amid rumors that it will be washed off. However, the weather gods were kind to cricket on Sunday. Cricket as we know is a game of technicalities. Toss is of immense importance when it comes to crucial matches. England won the toss and decided to bowl. Citing the weakness of batting Buttler made the decision. The plan was to expose the weakness of Pakistan first. Pakistan had a slow and steady start with their openers having a watchful start. Rizwan smashed a six over the square leg boundary on the first bowl of the first over. This was accompanied by a thunder of voices by the fans. It seemed this hit will give Pakistan the momentum they so dearly desire. However, an inside edge removed Rizwan from the crease. Harris came but couldn’t live up to the expectations. He was dismissed by Adil Rashid with the first delivery of his spell. After that Pakistan seemed to have some decent period of play. Masood took Livingstone to the cleaners. But sadly Babar couldn’t read a well-disguised googly from Adil and fell prey to it. Pakistan here made a bad decision by sending in Iftikhar ahead of Shadab and Nawaz who are far better players of spin. Iftikhar was dismissed by Ben Stokes after playing a whole maiden over. From here England rode the momentum provided to them. Batsmen came and went very quickly. Curran bowled a gem of a spell as he took 3 for 12 runs in 4 overs. Who knew this spell would be the difference at the end of the day? 

England came on to bat and Hales was dismissed by a mesmerizing delivery from Shaheen Shah. This exerted some pressure on the English side and charged the whole crowd which was dominated by Pakistanis. Naseem Shah bowled decent deliveries but was expensive during his first two overs. Haris Rauf dismissed Salt and Buttler respectively in the 4th and 6th over of the game. From there Brook and Stokes steadied the ship. Naseem bowled a gem of a spell on his comeback. Missed the outside edge on numerous occasions. Haris Rauf missed a crucial runout of Bens Stokes. Brook was dismissed by Shahdab but at the cost of Shaheen because he got injured in taking the catch. Pakistan needed some great performance from their main man Shaheen, however, by the sheer stroke of bad luck, he couldn’t cope with the pain. His over was bowled Iftikhar who gave 13 crucial runs. From there on, it was a ride back home for the batters of England. They chased down the total in 19 overs. Sam Curran was deemed the player of the final. Stokes once again proved to be a clutch who always performs in crucial moments.