Pakistan suffered a three-run defeat against England in a last over thriller in Dubai on Friday and thereby lost the three-match T20 series 0-2. Two out of the three runs were leg byes. In pinning Roy, debutant Aamer Yamin became the 11th man to take a wicket with his first delivery in T20 internationals.
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The top-order batsman showcased his talents with scores of 41, 38 and 46 – topping the run charts with a tally of 125 – on his maiden first-team tour.
Woakes showed the way with some crisp hitting as England raced past 150.
For Pakistan, Afridi (2-19) and Tanvir (2-36) were the most successful bowlers. Root was castled trying to slog over mid-wicket while Moeen Ali (0) hit one back to the bowler.
England were 75 for five at that stage.
Vince was on just four at the time, but Tanvir, who dropped a couple of sitters in the series, couldn’t really be blamed this time, with very little time to react to the ball blasted back at him.
England has played only three T20 matches in the 14 months leading into the series against Pakistan – but Pakistan has played more T20 games than any other country in the history of worldwide competition in the 20-overs per side format.
They do not possess many batsmen capable of inducing insomnia among the bowling fraternity; their running between the wickets may well inflict premature baldness on their coach, Waqar Younis, and if the ball goes in the wrong direction, ie towards Sohail Tanvir, the fielding is suspect. There looked to be two on but Rafatullah Mohmand hesitated and then gave up on the second run with Hafeez halfway down.
Pakistan’s woes compounded when Adil Rashid (1-29) snapped a terrific low catch off his own bowling to send Rizwan to the pavilion.
“The rationale is long-term development. we’ve only played two series as a group (one-day and T20)”.
England will take pride for showing such a positive reaction following the ill-fated Test series. We played well and batted well but missed an opportunity again. He hit three boundaries and a six during his resolute 45-ball knock.
Although Woakes (37 off 24 balls, including a stupendous six soaring out of the ground) came in at No.8, he went past Vince by the time he reached 32.
That Pakistan managed to get the scores level was down to the flaying of Malik and the impetus of Afridi. Pakistan were struggling at 107/5 and were struggling to keep up with the asking rate.
Thanks largely to Root, England were then going well until Shahid Afridi brought himself on for the final over of powerplay and was on a hat-trick by the end of it.
In an anti-climax, Malik holed out at long on as Woakes (1-26) kept his calm. Woakes and Vince put on 60 for the seventh wicket, the decisive partnership of the match.
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England were 48 for 3 at that point, as Morgan came out to join Vince in the middle.
