Sept 7 Pakistan routed England by nine wickets in the one-off Twenty20 global in Manchester on Wednesday to end their tour on a high.
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For England, the two unexpected setbacks so late in the season follow an unbeaten sequence in 10 previous limited-overs fixtures on home soil under Eoin Morgan since their narrow miss in the ICC World Twenty20 final against West Indies.
Hasan did for Joe Root (6) to make it two wickets in two balls and Jos Buttler’s attempts to get the scoreboard ticking over ended with him carving a shot to the deep point fielder for 16.
Then, the dazzling strokeplay of Sharjeel and Latif delighted a packed, partisan and deafening Old Trafford, ending Pakistan’s tour on a considerable high.
Alex Hales and Jason Roy added 56 for the first wicket but, after Roy was given lbw reverse-sweeping the brilliant Imad for 21, England slipped to 110-6.
Imad’s four overs cost only 17, without a four.
Ben Stokes picked out deep midwicket off Hasan, and Morgan was caught-behind trying to cut Wahab as England lost six for 54 and were to muster a solitary boundary in the last 10 overs.
In reply, Pakistan achieved the target in 14.5 overs for the loss of only 1 wicket.
Hales was bowled by Imad for 37 before the quartet of pacemen, three of whom were left-arm, took over. The short-armed flick that was witnessed during the one-dayers had already ruined Stokes’ first over since his manhandling by Carlos Brathwaite in Kolkata earlier in the year, before Adil Rashid was twice hoisted into the night sky for a 30-ball half-century.
It was Babar Azam who would strike the winning runs, however, smashing Liam Plunkett off the back foot to the cover boundary fence as Old Trafford – a cacophony of noise all night – in raptures.
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Pakistan, buoyed by their consolation victory at Cardiff on Sunday to avoid a Royal London Series whitewash, were being led for the first time by their new sprint-format captain Sarfraz Ahmed.
