Sam Billings played an inspired innings to help England to a comfortable 14-run victory in the first Twenty20 worldwide against Pakistan on Thursday.
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England had earlier won the four-match One-Day International series 3-1 after Pakistan won the preceding three-Test series 2-0. Boom Boom Afridi brought his team back in contention with a scintillating eight-ball 24-run assault that brought Pakistan with in a striking distance. It’s JAson Roy, who falld for 29 after being cheekily caught behind by Sarfaraz Ahmed, and it’s Afridi again who delivers another breakthrough.
Two boundaries and a six from Vince England past 100.
Attempting to up the ante even further, Roy attempted a slog sweep against Afridi but a bottom edge was snared by the keeper on his third attempt.
After England bowled moderately with the new ball, and Pakistan openers Rafatullah Mohmand and Ahmed Shehzad took advantage in a 51-run stand, the spinners had their say. As well as Buttler, Joe Root, David Willey and Chris Woakes have also been recalled to the England side, while Eoin Morgan, Reece Topley, Moeen Ali and Chris Jordan have been omitted.
Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez tried to remain upbeat.
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. However with the equation over two runs a ball the last thing Pakistan needed was an umpiring error but that’s what they got with Umar Akmal given out caught behind despite the ball deflecting off his thigh pad. “We did not play our greatest, Afridi performed as exclusively he can however we obtained over the road”, stand-in captain Buttler stated. We will try and get them out under 150-160.
Shahid Afridi: We are going with seven genuine batsmen and myself at No. 8. “For Woakes to come back, having bowled that over at Afridi, to get it right shows a lot about him”. “I had a good opportunity to win the game but I missed it”, said the capricious batsman.
“It is always a good sign of a changing-room when players who haven’t played all tour come out and perform – I’m really proud of them”.
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Hong Kong are one of the six qualifiers who will feature in the World Twenty20 to be held in India from March 11-April 3 next year.
