“We want to settle down before the T20 WC”, said Afridi of the event to be held in India from March 11-April 3.
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However, James Vince, Morgan and Sam Billings played a crucial knock in helping the English side post a total of 160 runs for the loss of five wickets in 20 overs.
Contrastingly, Afridi blamed his team’s poor batting.
Riaz, who has been the leader-in-chief of the Pakistan pace attack all summer, feels Afridi’s specialist T20 presence – in his first worldwide since the 2-0 series win over Zimbabwe in September – is what the team needs in the upcoming three-match contest, which begins in Dubai. Sohaib Maqsood and Umar Akmal did put together a small partnership to get the runs flowing again, before they both ended up at the same end in the latest of Pakistan’s running woes, with the latter ran out for 19 from 13.
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.
Jos Buttler had to keep his cool in the tightest of finishes to make his first shot at England captaincy a winning one.
The third and final match of the series will be played in Sharjah on 30 November.
Vince continued last season’s form, when he made more T20 runs (710 at 59.6) than any player in the history of England’s domestic T20 competition.
Jos Buttler and Joe Root missed the win over Pakistan as England attempted to expose more of their squad to pressure situations before the 2016 World T20.
But when he bowled his third over went for 22, including a wide, a no ball, and three Afridi sixes over wide long off, deep square leg and deep cover, before the Pakistan captain was dismissed off the final delivery, Liam Plunkett doing well to hold on to a sharp catch when off balance. “We were sitting at number two in Twenty20 because we have skilled players but maybe we are lacking in fitness and fielding and if you analyse then it´s a fitness game”, said Mushtaq. For Woakes to come back, having bowled that over at Afridi, to get it right shows a lot about him.
Afridi, and the rest of the world, had a gloriously entertaining reminder of the wicketkeeper-batsman’s talent when he hit England’s fastest ever century from just 46 balls against Pakistan in the fourth ODI in Dubai last week.
“We weren’t at our best, but we did enough to win a game away from home against great opposition”.
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Then Moeen Ali could only contribute a six-ball duck, pushing Sohail to cover.
