"Must Learn How To...": Pakistan Star Reacts After T20 World Cup Final Loss vs England
NDTV
Babar Azam's men pushed England all the way at the Melbourne Cricket Ground but fell to a five-wicket defeat with six balls remaining after setting a below-par 138-run target to win
Pakistan can take pride in getting to the World Cup final but now their young team must take the next step -- learning how to close out tight games, said batter Shan Masood on Sunday. Babar Azam's men pushed England all the way at the Melbourne Cricket Ground but fell to a five-wicket defeat with six balls remaining after setting a below-par 138-run target to win. Masood top-scored with 38 and said he took responsibility for not staying around longer to put together a bigger total.
"There were stages especially with the bat that we could have finished things off really well," he said.
"Personally, I take blame for it. We were aiming for 170 and having looked at the way the innings ended, we could have used a batsman staying in and getting us to at least 155-160, which would have been good on that pitch."
Instead they fell short, leaving it up to their renowned pace attack to blunt England. But Ben Stokes's unbeaten 52 was enough to see his team to a second T20 World Cup triumph following their 2010 victory.
Pakistan suffered a blow when strike bowler Shaheen Afridi was injured catching Harry Brooks in the deep and unable to complete his final two overs at the death.
