Billings played beautifully after Vince was castled by the pacey Wahab Riaz (1-33), the Kent star playing like the man he replaced, Buttler, with a leg-side flick for six and a monstrous maximum over midwicket as England racked up 93 runs from the last 10 overs and 65 from the last six.
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England got two early breakthroughs in Pakistan’s reply when Sarfraz Ahmed and then Mohammad Hafeez both holed out at deep backward-square – from a sweep at Reece Topley (three for 24) and then a pull at Plunkett. He also became the leading wicket-taker in T20s with his performance in today’s match surpassing off-spinner Saeed Ajmal.
Woakes had finished well with the bat, and did likewise with the ball.
Woakes then bowled the final over under major pressure, with Pakistan needing 11 to win. England faced third wicket loss when Moeen Ali was departed by Sohail Tanvir on his individual score of 0.
Eventually Pakistan fell short of the target by just four runs as England sealed a thriller to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.
However, he managed to toss the ball high enough, before touching the ground beyond the boundary, to buy himself sufficient time to scamper back inside the rope to reclaim the ball and take an incredible catch.
He dominated his fourth-wicket partnership with former West of England schools teammate Jos Buttler, which yielded 35 from 19 balls.
Morgan was one of four players who featured in Thursday’s 14-run victory to be rested.
England (possible): EJG Morgan (capt), AD Hales, JJ Roy, JE Root, JM Vince, JC Buttler (wkt), MM Ali, CR Woakes, AU Rashid, DJ Willey, RJW Topley.
In a contest lacking a half-century – but no shortage of late drama – England eked out a total of 172 for eight before bowlers Liam Plunkett (three for 33) and Chris Woakes ensured Pakistan suffered their second defeat in successive nights at the Dubai International Stadium. “We did not play our greatest, Afridi performed as exclusively he can however we obtained over the road”, stand-in captain Buttler stated.
“It’s encouraging as a side to win when we didn’t feel we played our best”.
Pakistan’s batsmen were once again reckless as majority got good starts but failed to capitalise. “Hopefully we can go into it and hit form at the right time, we are determined to”, he said. This was a closer game.
“We have won the last six games”.
“I’m really excited. I think we have a lot more to offer”.
“(Twenty20) is very fast cricket so we should raise our standard of fielding and our quickness level, that is the demand of this cricket”.
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“I felt like I wanted to take my chance, and I felt good… and it was nice to run in and bowl quick and get a few wickets”.
