The stage was set for England vs Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia. The tie on 13th November was classified as the ultimate redemption for the ODI world champions against a fierce Pakistan team in great form. After losses to huge rival India at the beginning of the tournament, Pakistan was back with a vengeance after narrowly losing a hotly contested warm-up series. England, they were looking to bounce back from their defeat in the final in 2016 and were looking to become double world champions whereas Pakistan was looking to win their first T20 world cup since 2009.

England thrashed India in their semi-final convincingly almost without a sweat, this is down to opening batters Jos Butler and Alex Hales who swept aside the Indian bowling attack with 4 overs left. This was similar for Pakistan, whose opening batters had demonstrated their class after a lack of runs from the pair in group stages. As always both teams threatened with the ball and with in-form bowlers, the likes of Sam Curran and Shaheen Afridi fancied their chances against the opposition batters as quick wickets were to be the defining factor in this game.

England won the first battle of the day by winning the toss and choosing to bowl first on a relatively green pitch. This green on the pitch may offer lots of swing in the ball which could help the bowlers pick up wickets. However, Pakistan started brightly with plenty of boundaries flowing, but it was England’s man of the Tournament who picked up the important wicket of Mohamed Rizwan at the beginning of the 4th over. This wicket seemed to slow the flow of runs and England was able to take key wickets in the middle of the innings thanks to excellent bowling from Adil Rashid, Chris Jordan, and of course Sam Curran. Pakistan just couldn’t deal with the bowling from the England attack and although they started to find the boundary, they seemed destined for a par score.

After a superb final over from Chris Jordan, England needed 138 runs to become the Kings of white ball cricket. However, it got off to quite a rough start, with Shaheen Afridi dismissing Alex Hales in the 1st over. As the overs went by, England captain Jos Butler started to swing the tie back into England’s favor after a display of boundaries showcasing his class. Unfortunately for him, this terrific cameo ended just as he was starting to kick on after he was caught behind by an excellent ball from Haris Rauf.

As this wicket fell it looked like there could be a possible comeback from the Pakistanis.

Enter Ben Stokes to the crease, this was his moment to bring it home once again just as he did in the CWC Final in 2019. He calmly took each ball at a time and slowly got the score to tick over and started easing the unwanted pressure. After smashing balls to the boundary time and time again, England began getting closer to the ultimate prize in T20 cricket. With 1 run needed with 7 balls to go, Ben Stokes smashed it into the legside and regained the International T20 throne as England wheeled away in celebration.

To think that this time last year, Ben Stokes was out from cricket on a mental health break. Since then, he’s become the English Test cricket captain, won 6/7 Test matches during the English summer, released a highly acclaimed documentary, and now lead England to a T20 World Cup.

Some people call him another Superman, but there is only one Ben Stokes.