Where Pakistan lost the plot in the 2022 T20I World Cup final

At 119/4 with four overs to go, you would think 160 is an achievable score and with the kind of bowling firepower that Pakistan had, they would have fancied defending that total. But Pakistan bungled the death overs in spectacular fashion.

First was Masood, who had played well until then, working his ones and twos. He tried to loft Curran but ended up flicking it straight to Livingstone at midwicket. It was Shadab’s turn in the very next over, as he miscued Jordan, who pitched it in hard, only to find Woakes at mid-off. Curran had Nawaz caught in the deep in the very next over to finish his four overs with figures of 4/12. Mohammad Wasim tried to hack a slow ball from Jordan in the final over, only to find Livingstone in the deep, who completed his third catch in four overs. Instead of 160, Pakistan only managed to get a paltry 137.

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So where did they go wrong? For all the hype T20 matches generate about 4s and 6s, this wasn’t a game where you wanted to go after the big shots. The MCG is a huge ground with bi square boundaries. When you need to hit 85m shots to clear the ropes, you know the ground is too big to take on the bowlers with mere strength. But big grounds also have its advantages for batsmen. It is hard to cover every part of the ground. There are plenty of ones and twos on offer, with even threes the way to go if placed properly. Shan Masood was excellent running between the wickets. But he too faltered tried to go big towards the final four overs.

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Batting in the death overs doesn’t mean you have to go for the big hits. The point is to score runs. Fielding captains place their best men near the boundaries to pounce on the miscues. So on a ground that was massive, hitting the gaps was the way to go. There were nine dot balls, apart from the four wickets in Pakistan’s final four overs. That’s thirteen balls Pakistan went without a run, most of it being swing and misses. Even if they worked in singles, they would have crosses 150. Pakistan bowled magnificently to defend their 138, even with their star bowler out of action after having just bowled two overs. Had their batsmen risen to the occasion today, the result might have been a different one. It was no cakewalk for England, but they paced their innings well, and on a day when it mattered the most, their stars stepped up – with bat, ball and in the field.