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News Desk: Jos Buttler’s England have done it and they have done it when it counted the most. Buttler’s England have thumped Pakistan and have finally ended their dream run in the ongoing T20 World Cup. With 80,462 cricket fans present at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the English Cricket team will lift the trophy in their hands and will announce their white-ball dominance on the entire globe.
England won the toss and elected to bat first. Owing to their stellar show against New Zealand, both Babar & Rizwan opened the proceedings for Pakistan. With the ball zipping around under overcast conditions, the English pacers were right on the money as Sam Curran shortened Mohammad Rizwan’s stay and decimated him, while he was batting on 15 off 14 deliveries. On the other hand, Babar Azam, the skipper of the Pakistan Cricket team kept proceedings under control as he held one end.
Azam ended up scoring 32 off 28 deliveries. The skipper scored at a strike rate of 114.29 as he struck 2 fours. Azam fell prey to the brilliance of Adil Rashid. Dasher Mohammad Haris couldn’t live up to his reputation and ended up scoring 8 runs off 12 deliveries. It was Shan Masood’s prowess that helped Pakistan reach a respectable total of 137 in their quota of 20 overs. Both Rashid and Jordan scalped 2 wickets each. Sam Curran tried his very best and succeeded in containing the Pakistan batsmen. He claimed 3 wickets.
After their stellar show against India, a lot was expected out of Alex Hales & skipper Jos Buttler. On the big stage, both Buttler & Hales tried to stamp their authority on Pakistan and bat them out very early, but things were not meant to be that way. Hales departed on a meager 1 run off 2 balls and Buttler followed him soon with 26 off 17 deliveries. The Pakistan pacers steamed in and created all sorts of difficulties for the English batsmen. Injury replacement, Philip Salt scored 10 off 9 deliveries and failed to get going. Shadab Khan in particular was stellar with the ball as he conceded just 20 runs in his quota of 4 overs.
Team Pakistan faced a major setback when Shaheen limped his way back to the dressing room. Ifthikar replaced him and this is when the game shifted to England’s favour. The English finally survived a mini-scare as they raced away to victory and have now repeated their heroics from 2010. England are the World Champions.
