England WIN the T20 World Cup after beating Pakistan by five wickets at the MCG

England got a taste of Twenty20 World Cup glory here in the most dramatic style today as Ben Stokes pushed them past Pakistan in a thrilling low-scoring final.

Stokes made an unbeaten 52 and set a decisive 48 with Moeen Ali calming England’s nerves and seeing them past Pakistan’s 137 for eight with six balls left.

But if that seemed comfortable it was anything but, with Pakistan bowling brilliantly in defense of their average total on a used field until they lost their spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi with what appeared to be a recurrence of his knee injury.

But that should not take away from the performance of Stokes, who was brilliant at beating the situation, just as he was in the decisive group stage match against Sri Lanka, to lead England home and unify the 50-over and T20 world titles.

So cheers for England, who can now rightfully claim to be one of the greatest white-ball teams of all time after completing their transformation from the dark days leading up to the 2015 World Cup to become the epitome of modern limited-overs excellence .

This is their second T20 title, following Paul Collingwood’s 2010 win, their second post 2015-era World Cup after their legendary 50 win in 2019 and their fifth consecutive appearance in the last four of a global white-winner. ball tournament.

And it confirmed that Jos Buttler is the rightful captain of this side, winning a trophy in his first tournament in charge after taking over from Eoin Morgan last summer.

The first win came as the game started on time, despite bleak forecasts all week that said both this and Monday’s reserve day could be a washout.

In the event that there was no rain on Melbourne before the start and only minor showers during the match, and if the Australian meteorology experts had nearly as bad a World Cup as their cricketers, then England also started a somewhat nervous starts in this final.

The last time Stokes pitched in a Twenty20 World Cup final, his last four balls all cleared for six from Carlos Braithwaite’s bat and the West Indies had snatched the 2016 title from England’s clutches in Kolkata.

Now Stokes threw a no-ball and a walk with his first two balls, but England complied when it became clear that a pitch that had been used, inexplicably for a grand final, for two previous games in this tournament was tough, with two speeds and not easy to hit.

Pakistan is leaning heavily on their openers, but Mohammad Rizwan would have gone over in the first if Chris Jordan had hit the stumps. Instead, he hit Chris Woakes for six points to capture the first border in the final and was then bowled over an inside rim by Sam Curran.

This was a steady, rather than spectacular, start from Pakistan, just as India had produced in the semi-final against England, and they had only reached 39 for one with 18 dots at the end of the power play of six.

Then it was time for Adil Rashid, excellent in the last three games to be won, to do his job and what followed was a brilliant leg spin with Rashid taking the wicket from Mohammad Haris with his first ball, finishing with two 22 from his four overs.

Rashid went wicketless in England’s first three matches but once the stakes got higher he’s risen to the occasion here and in the last three matches he has the combined figures of four for 58 in 12 overs. – including that rarity of the T20, a wicket maiden, here.

The wicket that fell in that fantastic Rashid over, the 12th of the innings, belonged to the captain and lead batter in Babar Azam and once he was gone, Pakistan always struggled to reach a formidable total.

Curran, arguably the England player of the tournament, completed the exceptional three to 12 figures from his four overs to advance to 15 World Cup wickets – and had not Reece Topley been injured in bizarre circumstances before the warm-up match against Pakistan in Brisbane he may not even have started in this tournament.

Pakistan hit 137 for eight in their 20 overs to a mass of green in the form of their support and looked at least 20 short against a superb English attack.

But with their own formidable attack and a pitch that became increasingly difficult to hit, they still had a chance to repeat their 50-over World Cup win over England 30 years ago on the same ground.

Pakistan certainly had the offense to make this far from easy and Shaheen made a reasonable impression on Wasim Akram in 1992 when he swung a ball into Alex Hales’ pads and bowled it over in the first.

That brought Phil Salt to his first stroke in this tournament and he could only get his first ball through his legs in front of a boundary from Naseem Shah. It didn’t get any easier for Salt, who survived a revised lbw scream at five and then his final was over when he limped the speedy Haris Rauf to the center of the wicket.

While Buttler was there, England was always on top and he played an incredible first off Naseem Shah, who pushed the ball around the corners, who sailed into the stands six times. But Rauf produced one that moved off the field and took his lead. Game, with England at 45 to three in the sixth over, very much on.

The final got really tense as it started to rain, Pakistan bowled brilliantly and England tried to stay ahead of the DLS goal, with Harry Brook falling on Shadab Khan as Shaheen appeared to hurt himself as he took the catch on the border.

It would prove to be a critical moment as Shaheen tried to come back and bowl his last two overs, but he could only manage one ball before stumbling away. How England then seized their opportunity, Stokes smashed Iftikhar Ahmed’s breaks for four and six after coming to complete Shaheen’s over and when Moeen went after Mohammad Wasim.

Moeen would fall with six needed but Stokes moved on to what was a remarkable first half-century in T20 cricket for England as the win came to 80,462 at the MCG.

Unburden all the action of England’s win in the T20 World Cup final with Sportsmail’s live blog here.