Imad Wasim was born in Swansea, where his father was working as an engineer, but moved to Islamabad as a toddler.
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Pakistan captain Azhar Ali won the toss and elected to field in the fifth and final one-day global against England.
England are now on fifth spot on ICC T20I rankings whereas Pakistan are lagging behind on seventh spot which does not seem to do justice with the talent the visiting team possesses. Both are big achievements for a young team so it was disappointing they chose to use this game to experiment with their line-up.
There was a time in this match, particularly when Roy was going well that 350+ looked on for England.
“You always feel you could have done better”.
‘I am really excited about the captaincy, ‘ the wicketkeeper-batsman said, on the eve of what is likely to prove a tough examination of his team’s credentials against Eoin Morgan’s World Twenty20 finalists. “We have shown a lot of strength throughout this series, and more to build on”, the England captain added.
Pakistan collapsed to 77 for three chasing 303 before a fourth-wicket partnership of 163 between Shoaib Malik (77) and Sarfraz Ahmed (90) turned this match in the Welsh capital their way. Mohammad Nawaz was then run out by Bairstow to give England a glimmer of hope.
But the Hampshire bowler has spirit and fight, which is why coach Trevor Bayliss is so keen to see more of him. But with Sarfraz homing in on a second century in the series, Dawson struck back with a quicker delivery that prompted the batsman to mistime his loft. They didn’t quite shoot off the blocks, but they ensured the scoreboard was kept moving.
Stokes contributed only nine singles to the 50 stand with Roy, who had a minor moment of fortune on 55 when Mohammad Rizwan was unable to hold what would have been a memorable catch diving to his right at midwicket off Shoaib.
Australia, who scripted a similar 4-1 series win over Sri Lanka, saw Aaron Finch and George Bailey move up two and three places, respectively.
After making his Pakistan debut in Ireland earlier this summer, Hasan Ali’s waspish pace and wholehearted attitude made a decent impression in adversity during the ODI series, and having earned a late call-up to the T20 squad following Mohammad Irfan’s short-lived recall, it seems likely that he’ll be thrust straight into the fray for a shortest-form debut.
Sarfraz, a mainstay in all three worldwide formats, was heartened by Pakistan’s performance in Cardiff. Despite handy contributions from Jason Roy (87 off 89 balls) and Ben Stokes (75 off 76 balls), the hosts lost momentum at regular intervals as they finished at 302/9.
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But it was the return of the otherwise ineffective Umar Gul that broke the fifth-wicket stand, Bairstow falling to a simple catch at backward point as he tried to glide runs to third man from a slower short ball. Pakistan was at a precarious 77 for 3.
