None of the England batsmen made a big score, but Roy (29 in 22 balls), Vince (38 in 24 balls) and Jos Buttler (33 in 22 balls) did enough to secure a winning score.
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However, all three bowlers in the list of highest wicket-takers in the T20 worldwide are from Pakistan.
Shehzad and Rafatullah’s five-over burst set up Pakistan’s chase, but like in England’s innings spin came to the fore on the used pitch.
Meanwhile, in Nagpur, South Africa were bowled out for their lowest-ever Test total against India as 20 wickets fell on a dramatic second day of the third Test. The Proteas were skittled for just 79 – which also represented their worst score since readmission to worldwide cricket in 1991 – as only JP Duminy’s 35 saved them from further embarrassment.
The new adventure began in 50-over cricket but even after just four Twenty20 internationals since England’s failed campaign in the last global tournament 20 months ago, Morgan is confident white-ball skills are interchangeable.
Buttler, returning to the scene where he posted England’s fastest one-day worldwide ton, struck back-to-back sixes off Tanvir and Billings, a half-centurion yesterday, clubbed Wahab Riaz over long-on in the space of five deliveries.
The victory was England’s fifth consecutive Twenty20 success heading into the World T20 in India in March.
In reply, although England leaked runs late on, Pakistan could only reach 146, falling to their first T20 defeat in seven matches.
Billings was adjudged as the Man of the Match for his brilliant contribution with the bat.
“I had a good opportunity to win the game but I missed it”.
England: Alex Hales, Jason Roy, James Vince, Joe Root, Jos Buttler (capt, wk), Sam Billings, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett, Stephen Parry. “There are no excuses – we have to raise our game”.
With a boundary needed from the final delivery, Woakes bowled a dot to Anwar, to seal a thrilling three-run victory, and secure England the series at 2-0 up with one T20I to play on Monday.
“For Chris Woakes to have the guts to stand up and do the job in that last over, fair play to him”.
“I think we try to teach them and give them full information but it goes down to the system, it’s a matter of our system which needs to be looked at”.
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Mushtaq, however, blamed the poor system of domestic cricket in Pakistan. The tourists will head into the match as favourites due to their recent triumph in the shorter format and Trevor Bayliss will be keen to assess his side’s ability ahead of next summer’s T20 World Cup.
