Pakistan captain Babar Azam gets emotional after losing to England in the final of the 20-20 World Cup 2022

Babar Azam: (Image Source: Twitter)

Following a dramatic turn of events, Pakistan managed to reach the semi-final of the 20-20 World Cup 2022 and an inspired performance against New Zealand helped them play the summit clash at Melbourne Cricket Stadium on Sunday. However, the Men in Green failed to beat England in the final. Twice in three months, Pakistan have reached the final of a multi-nation tournament but couldn’t win. 

In the recent Asia Cup, Pakistan went down to Sri Lanka in the final, while Babar Azam and Men suffered a 5-wicket defeat at the hands of England in the final on Sunday. Following the defeat, Pakistan skipper, Babar Azam expressed his disappointment over not crossing the final hurdle and lifting the trophies.

"Definitely, dukh hua hai (we are sad). It hurts when you can't finish it off in a final, of course. We're very proud to play for Pakistan and make the final. But it hurts when you can't finish it off. We couldn't finish it off in the Asia Cup either, and that does sting. This was a stressful week because we didn't know we were in or out. But the way we grabbed our opportunity and played our best cricket in four matches in a row, our team deserves credit," Babar said during the post-match press conference.

Pakistan batted first in the final but only managed to put 137 runs on the board. Early wickets in the powerplay didn’t help them make a good start. Wickets kept falling in the middle period as well which meant Pakistan couldn’t finish well either. 

"The ball was seaming early on. We wanted to get 45-50 runs in the powerplay but we lost a few wickets. In 11 overs, we were around 85 <84>, but the back-to-back wickets that fell in the middle order meant we lost momentum. Especially after Shadab and Shan's partnership ending with both getting out soon after each other like they did," Babar added.

"Our middle-order dot-ball ratio was a bit too high because we were in a different situation, trying to build a partnership. We couldn't do that, and whenever a wicket falls, it takes the new batter 2-3 balls to settle down. That put us on the back foot as a batting unit because we couldn't finish as we wanted."

Pakistan bowlers, however, fought hard but England did manage to chase down the score in the end with 1 over left in the game.