Last Updated: November 15, 2022, 2:19 PM IST
England steamrolled Pakistan in the final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup on Sunday. Jos Butler-led England were clinical with both bat and ball and won the high-stakes final by five wickets. Moreover, Pakistan’s defeat has exposed their brittle batting line-up. Pakistani batters did not put up much of a fight and crumbled under the pressure applied by the disciplined England bowlers. Pakistan’s Shan Masood was the stand-out batter who played a good knock of 38 runs off 28 balls. Pakistan managed to put up a respectable 137 runs on the board, courtesy of Masood’s knock.
However, England’s batting was simply too strong and they chased down 138 runs quite comfortably in the end. Now, Shan Masood has taken responsibility for not propelling his team to a more competitive total. While speaking to the press at the Melbourne Cricket Ground press area, Masood was left to rue missed opportunities in a game of invisibly fine margins. The southpaw said that losing wickets at regular intervals restricted Pakistan’s total and that he and Shadab Khan should have finished better.
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“When Babar and I were batting, we built a very good platform and then lost two wickets. We recovered that with Shadab and myself and then I don’t think we finished well. I and Shadab hold ourselves accountable for not staying there. There were stages, especially with the bat where we could have finished the innings really well. Personally, I take the blame for it. I thought that we were aiming for 170 and having looked at how the innings ended, maybe we could have used a batsman staying until the end and getting us to 155-160 which looked very good on a pitch that did something,” Masood was quoted as saying in the presser.
Masood also praised the England team for handling the pressure better in the crunch situations and said that Pakistan could not seal the crucial moments of the game.
Pakistan’s 137 runs proved to be a below-par total as Ben Stokes powered his team to a memorable win. Stokes stayed unbeaten and played a masterful knock of 52 off 49 to help England lift their second T20 World Cup.
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