England left-arm pacer Sam Curran and leg-spinner Adil Rashid put relentless pressure on the Pakistan batting line-up to restrict the opposition to a below-par 137 for eight in the T20 World Cup final on Sunday.
Curran, who made comeback from an injury earlier this year, has been England’s go to’ bowler in the competition and he proved that on the big stage with brilliant figures of 4-0-12-3.
T20 World Cup 2022: Full Coverage | Schedule | Results | Points Table | Gallery
The wily Rashid (4-1-22-2) wasn’t going to be left far behind as he choked the run-flow in the middle overs with as many as 25 dot balls between him and Curran.
Meanwhile, former India cricketer Dodda Ganesha connected Rashid’s performance to a major gaffe made by India. In semi-final match, India refrained from playing Yuzvendra Chahal who was a leg spinner, having a similar trait to Rashid. He said Rashid taking wickets shows how important Chahal could have been in the entire tournament.
Here it must be mentioned how Chahal sat out the whole tournament and didn’t play a match.
Live Score Pakistan vs England T20 World Cup Final Updates
“Every Wicket Adil Rashid picks will be a dagger through Indians’ hearts. We missed a trick by not picking a quality leg spinner like Chahal,” he tweeted.
Every Wicket Adil Rashid picks will be a dagger through Indians’ hearts. We missed a trick by not picking a quality leg spinner like Chahal #DoddaMathu #crickettwitter #T20WorldCupFinal
— Dodda Ganesh Dodda Ganesh (@doddaganesha) November 13, 2022
Earlier Rashid, with his stupendous effort, time and again showed how the Indian team management bungled its script by letting Yuzvendra Chahal cool his heels throughout the tournament. The MCG track had enough bounce and pace but Buttler’s best performing bowling duo (Curran and Rashid) did exactly the opposite take the pace off their deliveries.
Rashid flighted and lowered his pace to 75 kmph while Curran bowled between 126 kmph to 130 kmph which made run scoring difficult for the Pakistani batters. Both Babar Azam (32 off 28 balls) and Mohammed Rizwan (15 off 14) started on a cautious note as they had been doing for the past one year.
Curran, England’s most consistent bowler in the tournament, angled one across at fuller length and Rizwan didn’t have enough width to drive as he dragged that back to the stumps. Mohammed Haris (8 off 12), the find of the tournament for Pakistan, generally struggled before Rashid ended his misery.
He flighted one and enticed Haris to charge down the track but he was too close to the pitch of the delivery and was holed out at long-on.
Get the latest Cricket News, Schedule and Cricket Live Scores here