‘Roller Coaster of a World Cup’: Sachin Tendulkar Congratulates Champion England

Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar has praised and congratulated England after they created history by becoming the first men’s team to hold both the ICC World Cup trophies simultaneously. Jos Buttler’s men edged past Pakistan in a nervy run chase to clinch the T20 World Cup 2022 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday.

In 2019, England secured the 50-over world cup by beating New Zealand in a  dramatic final that went into the Super Over and was ultimately decided on boundary counts.

After the enthralling final at the MCG, Tendulkar shared his message on Twitter where he lauded the champions and appreciated both Pakistan and England for putting up a thrilling contest.

Sharing a photo of England cricketers celebrating with the trophy, Tendulkar wrote: “Congratulations England on winning your second T20 World Cup. Really was a fantastic achievement. It was a closely fought final and would’ve been even more interesting had (Shaheen) Afridi not been injured. What a roller coaster of a World Cup!”

Winning the toss in the final, England backed their chasing abilities and asked Pakistan to bat first.

Pakistan started slowly on a tricky Melbourne pitch as openers Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan failed to get going. The English bowlers tightened the screws on the batters, limiting them to 137/8, with only Shan Masood scoring more than 30 runs. Pacer Sam Curran finished with impressive figures of 3/12, while legspinner Adil Rashid scalped two wickets.

In response, Pakistani bowlers made life tough for the English batters by picking up wickets early on. However, star allrounder Ben Stokes, who has a knack for coming alive in the most strenuous situations, aced yet another chase in a nerve-racking encounter to drag England over the finish line.

A huge talking point from the match came in the 13th over of England’s chase when Shaheen Shah Afridi took a fine catch at long-off to send back Harry Brook and turned the tide in Pakistan’s favour.

However, he injured his knee in the process and was unable to bowl his final two overs. This proved to be too costly for the 2009 champions and they failed to defend the target without their pace ace.

Get the latest Cricket News, Schedule and Cricket Live Scores here