England v Pakistan, Only T20I - 5 Talking Points

Pakistan beat England by 9 wickets in the One-off T20I and gave a triumphant finish to their tour. In a stunning night of T20 cricket at Old Trafford, the visitors put up a highly inspiring all-round performance and gave no chance to the hosts who had just finished the ODI series in a dominating 4-0 fashion.

The Pakistani fans in the stadium had every reason to cheer. After choosing to bat first, England managed just 135/7 in the first innings due to some extraordinary bowling performance by the Pakistan bowling attack led by left-arm spinner Imad Wasim. Pakistan openers Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif then launched a brutal attack on the English bowlers and sealed the game single-handedly to give Pakistan a satisfying victory. 

1.Pakistan bowlers gain a firm grip:

England openers Jason Roy and Alex Hales began well and put up a quick-fire 56 run stand for the first wicket. It seemed like a good batting track until then.

But, suddenly The Men in Green found their way back into the game as Imad Wasim snapped two back to wickets short succession to both the openers back to the pavilion. This was the breakthrough which shifted the momentum totally towards the Pakistanis.

Wahab Riaz and Hasan Ali then shared five wickets between them while being very economical. The superb bowling perform saw England get totally derailed. They were reduced to 110/6 from being 56/0 at one stage. Eventually, all they could muster only was just 135/7 after 20 overs.

2. Dry run:

England team looked very weak today. The batsmen didn’t look like the one who compiled the world record ODI score a few days back. After the loss of Roy just after the powerplay, England completely lost their rhythm. Hales and Root departed cheaply.

Buttler and Stokes also did not play well and by the end of 16 overs, they were at 110/6. The wickets continued to fall and the runs dried up completely in the middle over.

The Pakistanis bowled so tightly that the Englishmen went without a boundary for 7.3 overs starting from the 10th over till the 18th over of the game and could manage just a single in the last 10 overs. David Willey’s wild one bounce boundary off Sohail Tanvir brought an end to the boundary-less spell.

3. Incredible debut for Hasan Ali:

Hasan Ali surely is the find of the series. The right arm fast bowler who made his international debut this tour in the limited overs leg has been highly impressive with the ball. After picking 8 wickets in the 5-match ODI series, Ali was handed his T20 debut today which he celebrated with a superb bowling spell of 2/24.

His scalps of the day included the dangerous Joe Root and Ben Stokes. He bowled well in partnership with Wahab Riaz and was ne f the main reason why England faced a slump in their run rate during the middle over.

4. Openers seal the game:

The game belonged to the Pakistan opener – Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif. The ‘right hand – left hand’ combination went ballistic right from the first over and launched a vicious attack on the English bowlers.

It took the duo just 4.4 overs to take their team past the 50 runs mark and by the end of the powerplay Pakistan were at a comfortable 73 runs. Both continued in the same fashion and Pakistan soon breached the 100 run mark inside the 10th over.

The effect of their attacking batting was that by the end of powerplay Pakistan had virtually sealed the game in their favor. Their stand was finally broken in the 12th over when Sharjeel lost his wicket to Adil Rashid just after completing his fifty. The other opener Khalid Latif, however, kept his wicket and finished unbeaten at 59.

5. Boundaries rain in the powerplay:

Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif’s onslaught was a visual delight for the fans. They were treated with some crunch and powerful strokes right from the first over.

The result of their outrageous attack was that a total of 15 fours and a six were hit in the span of the first six overs. The powerplay overs smoothly put Pakistan in a winning position. The boundary fest began with Sharjeel Khan thwacking back to back hits to the fence in the first over.

Khalid Latif followed it up with four hits to the fence in the next over. Both continued hammering the English bowlers and accumulated runs n only boundaries. The powerplay was brought to an end in style with both the opener breaking the record for Pakistan’s highest T20I partnership against England.