Pakistan and England will clash on Sunday in a repeat of the 1992 WC final at the iconic MCG.
Babar Azam’s Pakistan will lock horns with Jos Buttler’s England in the Final of this T20 World Cup at the great Melbourne Cricket Ground on November 13 (Sunday).
Both these finalists made it into the finals by convincingly defeating Zealand and India in their respective semi-finals.
Pakistan has been having an incredible journey in this world cup.
They lost their first two games against India and Zimbabwe and were on the verge of elimination. But they came back strongly and their next three games and miraculously qualified for the semis.
In the semi-final, Pakistan played their best cricket of the tournament and thrashed the favorites New Zealand by 7 wickets.
Bowling first, they restricted the Kiwis batters to just 152 runs from their 20 overs.
In reply, Babar and Rizwan returned to form at the right time and added a 100-run opening partnership for their side.
Pakistan chased down the total with 5 balls to spare. Both Rizwan and Babar scored half-centuries for Pakistan.
On the other hand, England also faced some difficulties early on in the tournament as they suffered an upset against Ireland while their match against Australia got washed out due to rain.
England defeated both New Zealand and Sri Lanka to qualify for the semi-finals.
In the second semi-final, England completely outplayed the strong Indian side.
They handed a humiliating 10-wicket defeat to India as their openers chased down a total of 169 runs without losing a single wicket.
Hales and Buttler smashed 86* and 80* runs respectively for their side in that game.
Live Streaming and Broadcast
This match will be broadcast live on Star Sports network while the Live streaming will be available on the Disney + Hotstar app & web.
Match Details:
Teams – Pakistan vs England
Date – 13th November October 2022
Time – 1:30 PM IST
Venue – Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Melbourne
Average 1st innings total
The average 1st innings score at the MCG is 155 runs.
Head-to-Head record in T20Is:
Here is the head-to-head record between Pakistan and England in T20 Internationals.
Total Matches Played – 28
Pakistan won – 9
England won – 18
Tie/ No Result – 1
Pitch Report:
The pitch at the MCG assists both the batting and fielding sides.
The fast bowlers will get a lot of seam movement with the new ball early on in the innings.
The batters will also score freely after spending some time on the wicket but a new batter will find it difficult to time the ball well at the MCG.
The team winning the toss will like to chase the total on this wicket.
Weather Report:
The temperature is expected to hover around 15°C on the match day with 60% humidity.
There is s bad news for the fans as the weather forecast is predicting a 95 percent chance of rain on Sunday.
There is also a reserve day for the final but the weather is not looking good for Monday as well with a 90 percent chance of precipitation
Possible Playing XI:
Here are the possible playing XIs of both teams,
Pakistan:
Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Haris, Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi
England:
Jos Buttler (c and wk), Alex Hales, Phil Salt, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood/ Chris Jordan
Who will win?
England has a strong batting unit but Pakistan also has a world-class bowling attack.
So, it will be a competition between Pakistan’s bowling and England’s batting.
The bowling lineup of England is weak while Pakistan is looking a much better side with the return in form of both Babar and Rizwan.
Hence, we predict that Pakistan will beat England in the Final and will lift the trophy of the T20 World Cup 2022.
