How do you escape Ben Stokes in a crunch situation? Australia couldn’t, New Zealand didn’t and it was time for Pakistan to run into one of the greatest England cricketers in a T20 World Cup final. Stokes loves playing in these situations. It may not look good but he ensures that England aren’t losing it and stays till the end to take his side to victory.
Whether it was the Headingly Test against Australia in the 2019 Ashes or the epic World Cup final against New Zealand, Stokes defied odds, bowling attacks, situations to end up on the winning side and even though the situation was less tricky on Sunday, he managed to soak the pressure in and came up trumps in the end to guide England to a T20 World Cup triumph after 12 years.
England were coming off from hammering India in the semi-finals as they chased down 170 runs without losing a single wicket in just 16 overs. Not just Pakistan fans, even their Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had trolled India for losing by 10 wickets twice in the two T20 World Cups, against Pakistan last year and now against England.
Even though Pakistan did reach the semis, they couldn’t get through a strong English outfit and were subjected to a 5-wicket loss owing to Sam Curran and Adil Rashid’s heroics with the ball and Stokes’ with the bat.
The Indian fans had their revenge as as they teased their Pakistan counterparts saying, “Kam se kam Zimbabwe se toh nahi haare hum ( At least, we didn’t lose to Zimbabwe.)” The meme war erupted as soon as England won the T20 World Cup, here are some hilarious reactions:
Pakistan had lost to both India and Zimbabwe in their first two games before setting a strong comeback in motion. Pakistan won their last three group stage game and needed a favour from the Netherlands to qualify for the semi-finals.
