Luck was not on Pakistan’s side as they were beaten in the World Cup final by England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday.
After a sub-par batting effort, but a superb bowling comeback, the Green Shirts had made a match of it before an untimely injury to star pacer Shaheen Afridi a ball into the 16th over forced Babar Azam to turn to part-time Iftikhar Ahmed.
Seeing the southpaw pacer leave the field deflated the team as his replacement Iftikhar was swiftly dispatched for a pair of boundaries by Ben Stokes and the match, from that point on, was as good as over.
Earlier, Pakistan pacers led by Shaheen and Haris Rauf did a remarkable job of keeping their team in the hunt despite just 137 to defend.
Shaheen, just as he usually is, was superb in the opening over, and got rid of Alex Hales.
As mentioned above, luck was not on Pakistan’s side, something demonstrated by the fact that the lanky pacer picked up the injury while taking a catch of Harry Brook.
Had it not been for Shaheen’s injury, the match was anyone’s to take.
England chasing a lowest total of 139 runs set by Pakistan on a bowling pitch won by five wickets sparing six balls.
With this win England has become world champion of both T20 as well 50 overs formats.