PAK vs ENG Highlights: After Pakistan’s heartbreaking five-wicket loss to England in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 final, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam admitted their star pacer Shaheen Afridi getting injured during the match “put them off”, adding his team fell 20 runs short in the summit clash. Afridi seemingly got injured in the 13th over after picking up Harry Brook’s catch. He returned and tried to bowl, but could not continue.
Shaheen, who is Pakistan’s key pacer, could bowl only 2.1 overs of his spell in the summit clash. Invited to bat first in the match, Pakistan set a target of 138 runs in their 20 overs.
In reply, Ben Stokes’ unbeaten innings of 52 runs helped England comfortably chase down the target with 6 balls remaining. By the virtue of this win, England became first team in cricket history to win both ODI and T20 World Cup titles. England won the 2019 World Cup title on home soil.
“Congratulations to England, they deserve to be champions and fought well. We felt like home here, got great support at every venue. Thanks for your support. Yes, we lost the first two games but how we came in the last four games was incredible,” said Azam in the post-match presentation.
“I just told the boys to play our natural game, but we fell 20 runs short and the boys fought well with the ball. Our bowling is one of the best attacks in the world. Unfortunately, Shaheen’s injury put us off, but that is part of the game,” Azam added about the match.
Brief score: Pakistan: 137/8 (Shan Masood 38, Babar Azam 32; Sam Curran 3-12) vs England: 138/5 (Ben Stokes 52*, Jos Buttler 26, Haris Rauf 2/23).