Sunday, June 17, at the CBRP Stadium Turf Ground in Lauderhill, Florida, saw Pakistan end their T20 World Cup 2024 campaign with a hard-fought three-wicket victory over Ireland.
Because the pitch had been kept under cover for a few days, Babar Azam won the toss and chose to bowl first on a rather damp surface. Shaheen Afridi and Mohammad Amir, Pakistan’s two left-arm seamers, took the pitch first and used their superb swing bowling to overwhelm the Ireland batting. In the seventh over, Ireland conceded just 32 runs for the first six wickets they lost.
Ireland was in terrible shape and needed a partner badly, and Gareth Delany and Mark Adair gave it to them. In order to assist Ireland mount some kind of comeback, they scored 44 runs off 30 balls for the seventh wicket. Nevertheless, the European team lost three wickets for four runs at the conclusion of the 14th over, leaving them at 80/9. Under extreme duress, Benjamin White and Joshua Little, the last two wickets, batted the final six overs, scoring 26 runs. Ultimately, Paul Stirling’s team completed their 20 overs with a score of 106/9.
With three wickets apiece, Shaheen and Imad Wasim were the most effective bowlers. In the meantime, the 2009 winners put on a strong bowling performance, with Mohammad Amir taking two wickets and Haris Rauf contributing one.
Ireland put up a fierce display on the pitch, which helped Pakistan crawl to win.
Pakistan’s innings began calmly enough as Mohammad Rizwan and Saim Ayub combined for 23 runs off 25 balls before the latter was out for 17. In the next over, Rizwan went for the same score, and Pakistan finished the powerplay with 40/2.
Pakistan was easily winning, but in just 11 overs, they were suffering at 62/6 after losing four wickets for 10 runs. Alongside captain Babar, young Abbas Afridi contributed 33 runs off 40 balls for the seventh wicket with a brilliant knock.
After making a solid 21-ball 17, Abbas was eventually removed in the 18th over. At that point, Pakistan still needed 12 runs off 14 balls to win. To lead his team home in the 19th over, Shaheen strode to the crease and blasted two sixes. With seven balls remaining in the bank, Babar played the perfect anchor position, going undefeated at 32 off 34 balls as Pakistan won by three wickets.
After this victory, Pakistan placed third in the group. Ireland, however, maintained their position at the bottom with their third defeat in four games.
Also read: T20 World Cup 2024: Pakistan vs Ireland, 36th Match – Who Said What?
Here are the best tweets from the game:
Pakistan 62/6 against Ireland. Pakistan cricket never forgets to give us entertainment. What a team 😂😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/TSZmilTBvm
— R A T N I S H (@LoyalSachinFan) June 16, 2024
Pakistan doing Pakistan things again…bowling top class…batting 🫣
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) June 16, 2024
Pakistan becomes the ONLY TEAM to win a T20 World Cup match at Florida. pic.twitter.com/WhfomZpLjn
— Himanshu Pareek (@Sports_Himanshu) June 16, 2024
You should appreciate Pakistan for giving nail-biting matches against every team in the world 🫡#PAKvIRE || #PakistanCricket pic.twitter.com/LcB0KQ4yld
— Sir BoiesX (@BoiesX45) June 16, 2024
PSL has commited a BIG FRAUD for Pakistan Cricket Team! The players picked on the basis of PSL performance turned out to be ZERO in T20 WorldCup 2024!😡 #CWC24
— Arfa Feroz Zake (@ArfaSays_) June 16, 2024
Win for Pakistan, but one thing is clear: this whole team can’t even chase 107 against the team like IRELAND without Babar in a de@d rubber but these shameless people have the audacity to say he is not fit in t20Is#PAKvIRE pic.twitter.com/vsAvpSwoEP
— Hassan Abbasian (@HassanAbbasian) June 16, 2024
Pakistan nikalne se pahle Babar Azam and team #PAKvIRE pic.twitter.com/OljyGRTCUa
— Desi Bhayo (@desi_bhayo88) June 16, 2024
Nothing to cheer about. This Pakistan team needs to be dismantled from top to bottom!
Worst ever T20 WC performance pic.twitter.com/CpQhzBRhNG— Basit Subhani (@BasitSubhani) June 16, 2024
Pakistan cricket would have been a whole lot different if this man Shan Masood was made captain in 2019 instead of Babar Azam. The best cricket brain in Pakistan. Someone who cares about the team rather than his own stats. We wasted so many years of his career😢 #PakistanCricket pic.twitter.com/r0kxC4Vade
— Haroon (@hazharoon) June 16, 2024
Pakistan crawl to a 2 wicket victory in the 19th over, to secure a consolation win vs Ireland.
— Behram Qazi 🇵🇰 🇨🇦 (@DeafMango) June 16, 2024