The last couple of months have been difficult for the Pakistan team, having missed out on two major titles, the Asia Cup and the 20-20 World Cup. They have managed to get to the finals but haven’t been able to get their hands on the trophy.
Pakistan reached the Asia Cup final in September, only to lose to Sri Lanka. Now, two months later, the team rose from the ashes to reach the World Cup final, where England defeated them en route to their second 20-20 World Cup title.
Babar Azam was upset with not finishing well after losing to England by five wickets at the MCG, and while the Pakistan captain lauded the team’s effort, he did become emotional when discussing his team’s failure to cross the line.
“Definitely, dukh hua hai (we are sad). It hurts when you can’t finish it off in a final, of course. We’re very proud to play for Pakistan and make the final. But it hurts when you can’t finish it off. We couldn’t finish it off in the Asia Cup either, and that does sting. This was a stressful week because we didn’t know we were in or out. But the way we grabbed our opportunity and played our best cricket in four matches in a row, our team deserves credit,” Babar said during the post-match press conference.
The ball was seaming early on: Babar Azam
When Pakistan batted first, they kept losing wickets at regular intervals, while England applied pressure through leg-spinner Adil Rashid and left-arm quick Sam Curran, who combined for five wickets. Pakistan could only muster 137/8 in the end, a total easily surpassed by Ben Stokes.
“The ball was seaming early on. We wanted to get 45-50 runs in the powerplay but we lost a few wickets. In 11 overs, we were around 85 [84], but the back-to-back wickets that fell in the middle order meant we lost momentum. Especially after Shadab and Shan’s partnership ending with both getting out soon after each other like they did,” Babar added.
