A naughty scriptwriter might turn to ‘Repeat or Revenge’ to hype up Sunday’s final of the T20 World Cup, but the stage and the occasion are such that it doesn’t really need the whipping up of artificial excitement.
Two teams that made a late charge to the knockouts will square off at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in a rerun of the 1992 50-over World Cup final when Imran Khan’s Pakistan bested Graham Gooch’s England with considerable ease to be crowned champions.
Babar Azam is no Imran, nor is Jos Buttler in the Gooch mould, but in their own way, the respective skippers have shaped the fortunes of their sides. Buttler inherited a well-rounded, highly proficient white-ball outfit from Eoin Morgan, who steered England to the 50-over World Cup crown in their own backyard in 2019.
Babar has had no such luxury but without appearing to do so, he has got the team to buy into his line of thinking, as evidenced by a semifinal appearance in the last edition in the UAE and now a chance at becoming just the second team, after West Indies, to win the T20 World Cup a second time.
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Pakistan’s charge through the field after a disastrous start is reminiscent of their run in 1992. Bowled out then for 74 by England in the round-robin league and staring a big defeat in the face, they were bailed out by the Adelaide rain after which they gathered force, winning their last four games en route to the final. This time around, unexpected help has come from the Netherlands, whose stunning conquest of South Africa facilitated Pakistan’s entry into the last four. To those who believe in such matters, the stars seemed aligned favourably towards Pakistan.
England’s campaign too has been anything but flawless. Following a spectacular defeat to Ireland in a rain-affected game, they had to dig deep to get past New Zealand and Sri Lanka to make the semis. Once there, they turned on the style; the temptation to label the bowling ‘clinical’ will overshadow the street-smartness they showed with the ball, while the batting was positively rambunctious, Buttler and Alex Hales making a mockery of the 169-run chase with a 16-over unseparated stand.
England have been singularly dependent on their captain and late inclusion Hales, the only men with more than 100 runs for the competition, but the array of match-winners in their ranks is the envy of the rest of the field. Ben Stokes brings the X Factor, and that they could afford to not bowl someone as skilled as Moeen Ali at all and still restrict India to 168 is a tribute to the depth in their bowling group.
They might not match up in oomph with a gun Pakistani fast-bowling attack helmed by Shaheen Shah Afridi only because he is more flamboyant than Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf and Mohammad Wasim, but they know how to get the job done.
How well England handle this pace quartet will go a long way towards deciding if they can become the first team to simultaneously hold both limited-overs World Cups. Should Buttler be the one to hoist the cup, it will signal the coming of a full circle of England’s white-ball cricket; after all, their investment in all-out aggression stemmed from their failure to make the knockout quarterfinals of the 50-over World Cup in Australia in 2015.
There is, however, a literal cloud over the final, the weather forecast anything but encouraging. If the met experts are proved right, the title clash could spill over to reserve-day Monday, when too it is expected to rain. That the side batting second should face a minimum of ten overs for this to constitute a match has added to the drama and uncertainty, everyone a little on edge wondering if the final will be decided by factors other than mere cricketing skill and the ability to handle pressure alone.
Only the bravest, or the foolhardiest, will confidently embark on the path to prediction. Pakistan’s mercurial pace attack versus England’s all-round depth is a mouth-watering prospect, and it will be a carping shame if the elements dictate how it plays out.
(The writer is a senior cricket journalist)