Good morning and welcome to our live blog of the T20 World Cup men’s cricket final. England, led by Jos Buttler, contest this fixture against Pakistan, led by Babar Azam, and the action comes to us from the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The first thing to check in with is the weather. It’s a pleasant evening there, little fluffy clouds, and at time of writing no rain. However, the forecast is not very good at all: thunder, lightning, very very frightening. We will have to see how we get on.
Assuming that the weather does stay alright, we could be in for a cracking match. England defeated India in the semi with a magnificent surge of batting power from Buttler and Alex Hales at the top of the order, needing just 16 of their 20 overs to hunt down India’s 168 and battering the ball hither and yon. Pakistan won their semi against New Zealand, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan the men who did the damage with the bat as the mercurial men in green put disappointment from earlier in the tournament, when they lost to India in a thriller, and Zimbabwe in a bit of a fiasco, behind them in their own inimitable way. Even still, they needed a favour from an unlikely source: they snuck through when Netherlands (hilariously) turned over the masters of the tournament choke, South Africa.
This is the eighth edition of the tournament, and both of these sides have won it once: England did so in 2010 when they beat the Aussies in Bridgetown, and Pakistan were the victors at Lord’s in 2009. Each side has tasted World Cup final defeat once in the format: Pakistan came off second best in the inaugural final in 2007, losing to India at The Wanderers, while the English took the unwanted silver medal in 2016 against India at Eden Gardens. Goes without saying that neither side wants to move 2-1 ahead on runners-up medals… But if England can win this, they will be the holders of the 50 over World Cup and the 20 over version and they can claim without any fear of contradiction to be the best team in the limited overs business.
England call upon a deep and powerful batting line up, the spin of Adil Rashid, and the death bowling excellence of Sam Curran. Pakistan look to Babar and Rizwan up front, the mighty seamer Shaheen Shah Afridi and the wily leg-breaks of Shadab Khan.
We will get to news of the teams and the toss very shortly. We are expecting the pitch to be a bit worn. The match starts at 8am UK time, which is to say 1900 in Melbourne. Thanks for joining us, and hopefully we are in for a fun morning.
