Pakistan pulled off a thrilling comeback win against Ireland in their last match of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in Lauderhill on Sunday, June 16. Bowlers impressed with brilliant greedy spells to restrict the Irish side to a 106 total. Then skipper Babar Azam Played a valiant knock to drag Pakistan to a successful chase with three wickets and seven balls remaining.
Having already been knocked out from the Super 8 qualification race, both teams tried their best to walk away with a consolation win at rain-hit Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground. Fast bowlers from both teams were impressive in tricky playing conditions in the last match of this World Cup in the USA and once again batters struggled to impress.
Pakistan's campaign ended after the USA's last game against Ireland was washed out due to rain in Lauderhill on Friday. Pakistan were eliminated from the first round of the tournament for the first time and finished their campaign with two wins and two defeats in four matches.
Ireland's disastrous run ended with another heartbreaking defeat as Paul Stirling's men walked back home with no win in four matches.
Batting first, Ireland witnessed an embarrassing collapse against Pakistan's well-formed pace. Shaheen picked two big wickets of Andy Balbirnie and Lorcan Tucker in the very first over and then it was a long battle for the Irish side.
Gareth Delany top-scored with 31 runs off 19 balls to take Ireland past 100 and then Joshua Little, batting at no.10, scored 22* off 18 balls to help Ireland post a fighting total. Imad Wasim and Shaheen Afridi picked three wickets each while Mohammad Amir bagged one for Pakistan.
Saim Ayub and Mohammad Rizwan added 23 runs for the opening wicket as Pakistan lost both openers inside powerplay overs. Barry McCarthy was impressive in the middle overs with timely wickets of Shadab Khan and Usman Khan as Pakistan stumbled from 52/2 to 62/6 within a moment.
Babar kept the scorecard moving from one end and added crucial match-defining 33 runs for the sixth wicket with Imad Wasim. Babar remained unbeaten and top-scored with 32 runs off 34 balls while Shaheen finished the chase with two sixes in the 19th over.
Ireland Playing XI: Paul Stirling (c), Andrew Balbirnie, Lorcan Tucker (wk), Harry Tector, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy, Joshua Little, Benjamin White.
Pakistan Playing XI: Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saim Ayub, Babar Azam (c), Fakhar Zaman, Usman Khan, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Afridi, Abbas Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Amir.
