Pakistan’s Shan Masood took the blame for not finishing the team’s innings on a high after the Men in Green lost the T20 World Cup final against England by five wickets at the iconic MCG on Sunday. Masood was well-settled at the crease after scoring 28-ball 38 but he was dismissed at the wrong time for Pakistan.
The left-hander was looking good but he was dismissed by Sam Curran on a short-pitched delivery. Pakistan could not end their innings on a high as they managed an under-par score of 137 runs on the board after Jos Buttler won the toss and decided to bowl first.
Masood top-scored for Pakistan but he was disappointed after he could not provide the finishing kick.
As quoted by ESPN Cricinfo, he said: “When Babar and I were batting, we built a very good platform and then lost two wickets. We recovered that with Shadab and myself and then I don’t think we finished well and I think me and Shadab hold ourselves accountable for not staying there. Personally, I take blame for it.”
“There were stages, especially with the bat where we could have finished the innings really well. I thought that we were aiming for 170, and having looked at how the innings ended, maybe we could have used a batsman staying until the end and getting us to 155-160, which looked very good on a pitch that did something.”
The Pakistan left-hander admitted that England was very good in the crucial stages of the match and they deserve all the credit.
“With the ball, we were bowling some really really good deliveries, some very good spells, but maybe we also gave a few runs away too many early on which we could have done without. At the end in that crucial period where we lost Shaheen, we could have done with his two overs at the end. England were very good in those crucial moments. I thought they came at us both with the bat and the ball.”
Pakistan was not up to the mark with the bat but their pace battery was right on the money as they breathed down the neck of the England batters. England was able to win their second T20 World Cup crown after Ben Stokes scored an unbeaten knock of 52 runs.
